


SPN Watching the Show

by Mickey_Todoroki



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Angst, Awesome Charlie Bradbury, BAMF Castiel (Supernatural), Bisexual Dean Winchester, Bobby Singer is Dean Winchester's Parent, Caring Crowley (Supernatural), Caring Rowena MacLeod, Castiel Loves Dean Winchester, Castiel Uses ASL (Supernatural), Castiel Wants Children, Castiel is Protective of Dean Winchester, Charlie Bradbury & Dean Winchester Friendship, Charlie Bradbury & Sam Winchester Friendship, Charlie Bradbury Ships Castiel/Dean Winchester, Crowley Uses ASL (Supernatural), Dean Winchester Has ADHD, Dean Winchester Uses ASL, Dean Winchester Uses Fidget Toys, Dean Winchester Wants Children, Dean Winchester Whump, Dean Winchester is Everyones Parent, Dean Winchester is Good With Children, Dean Winchester is Protective of Castiel, Dean Winchester is Protective of Sam Winchester, Dean Winchester is Sam Winchester's Parent, Episode: s01e01 Pilot, Episode: s01e03 Dead in the Water, Episode: s01e05 Bloody Mary, Established Castiel/Dean Winchester, Everyone Loves Dean Winchester, F/M, Fluff and Angst, Homophobic John Winchester, Hunter Claire Novak, I Wrote This Instead of Sleeping, John Winchester Abuses Dean Winchester, John Winchester Bashing, John Winchester Being an Asshole, John Winchester Returns, John Winchester and Sam Winchester Fight, M/M, Mary Winchester Returns, Murder-Suicide, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Parent Dean Winchester, Parent Jody Mills, Parental Bobby Singer, Parental Dean Winchester, Parental Jody Mills, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Protective Bobby Singer, Protective Castiel (Supernatural), Protective Crowley, Protective Crowley (Supernatural), Protective Dean Winchester, Protective Rowena MacLeod, Protective Sam Winchester, Rowena Uses ASL, Sam Winchester Ships Castiel/Dean Winchester, Sam Winchester Uses ASL, Sam Winchester is a genius, Smart Sam Winchester, Suicide Attempt
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-24
Updated: 2021-02-09
Packaged: 2021-03-10 23:48:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 36,084
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28275597
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mickey_Todoroki/pseuds/Mickey_Todoroki
Summary: Set during season 11, Sam, Dean, and Cas are shocked to find members of their family that were long dead and halfway across the country in the Dean Cave. Together, they watch some of the saddest, funniest, cutest, and most plot-filled episodes of Supernatural.
Relationships: Bobby Singer & Dean Winchester, Bobby Singer & Dean Winchester & Sam Winchester, Bobby Singer & Sam Winchester, Castiel & Bobby Singer, Castiel & Claire Novak, Castiel & Dean Winchester, Castiel & Sam Winchester, Castiel/Dean Winchester, Charlie Bradbury & Claire Novak, Charlie Bradbury & Dean Winchester, Charlie Bradbury & Dean Winchester & Sam Winchester, Charlie Bradbury & Kevin Tran, Charlie Bradbury & Sam Winchester, Crowley & Rowena MacLeod, Crowley (Supernatural) & Dean Winchester, Dean Winchester & Sam Winchester, Jody Mills & Claire Novak, Jody Mills & Dean Winchester, Jody Mills & Sam Winchester, John Winchester/Mary Winchester, Kevin Tran & Dean Winchester
Comments: 50
Kudos: 215





	1. Intro

Hearing a loud crash sound from the Dean Cave, Dean, Sam, and Cas spared a quick glance at one another before dashing deeper within the Bunker.

Upon entering the room, the group was astounded to find a mass of tangled together bodies on the floor in front of the tv. Not knowing quite what to do, they stood in the doorway and watched as the people began stirring, beginning to untangle themselves from the others. The boys couldn't see anyone's faces from where they were. Not wanting to be caught off-guard, the Winchesters drew their guns while Cas let his Angel Blade drop from the inside of his sleeve into his hand.

"All right, raise your hands and face us or we shoot," Dean announced, startling a few of the people. He wouldn't really shoot them, but they were strangers in his home, he wanted to scare the shit out of them.

However, at the face of the first person to turn around, both boys lowered their weapons, nearly dropping them as Cas tilted his head in confusion.

_ Who was this woman? _

"Mom?" Dean quietly let out.

The other people turned around quickly, and Dean's legs gave out, Cas sheathing his blade and reaching out quickly to grab him while Sam was frozen in shock.

Standing in the middle of the Dean Cave was nearly everyone the Winchesters lost and more: John, Mary, Bobby, Crowley, Rowena, Claire, Jody, Kevin, and Charlie.

Sam sank to his knees while Cas lowered Dean down, sitting behind him to offer his silent support.

"It's nice to see you boys are still in one piece," Bobby joked, quickly getting over his shock and moving towards the boys. Sam jumped up, and Bobby wrapped his arms around the man while Cas helped Dean stand back up and steady on his two feet. Bobby then moved to Dean, tightening his grip when he felt tears hit the side of his neck. When they finally separated, Bobby surprised both Winchesters and the angel by also hugging Cas.

"Thank you for protecting them," Bobby whispered in Cas's ear before letting him go. Cas just nodded in response.

Shaking off their shock, everyone else, minus Crowley and Rowena, went over and hugged the boys (Mary and John skipping over Cas). Charlie had run up and jumped onto Dean, wrapping her legs around his waist and burying her face into the crook of his neck, Dean burying his face in her hair.

"Oh, I missed you, kiddo. I'm so sorry," Dean apologized, trying to stifle the tears attempting to escape.

"I missed you, too. And I don't regret helping you." She then leaned back to get a look at his now tear-stained face. "You  _ did _ get it off, didn't you?"

He just nodded and pulled her back in.

"Hey! I want a hug, too!" Sam declared, holding his arms out.

After everyone got their hugs (with many tearful apologies), everyone finally separated.

"Do you know why they're here?" Dean asked Cas.

Cas just lightly shook his head. "I don't know the purpose of their resurrections/teleportation, but I  _ do _ sense an immense amount of power radiating from them.

"Chuck?" Sam asked.

Cas once again nodded, "most likely."

"But what are his plans?" Crowley chimed in, Rowena nodding in agreement with her son.

"I'm sorry, but who are you and how do you know my boys?" John directed to everyone he didn't know with a silent glare.

Dean froze. He didn't know what to say. He knew how black and white John's view on monsters was. Dean had no clue how the man would react to learning that his sons had befriended the King of Hell and his witch mother. Or, you know, the fact that his eldest was dating an Angel of the Lord.  _ That _ conversation was bound to be  _ delightful, _ considering that he was almost 100% sure that John was homophobic, and Dean's lover happened to be in the body of a man. 

He also didn't know how to feel about having his Dad back. The last time he'd seen the man, he'd told Dean that he might have to kill Sam.

Yeah,  _ great _ last words. 

Dean glanced over at Cas when he felt the grip on his elbow tighten for a second. He'd kind of forgotten that his boyfriend was the only reason he hadn't had a quick meeting with the floor. 

Sam, seeing Dean's frightened and shocked expression, sighed, "we met most of them through cases."

That snapped Dean out of his reverie. "Castiel is an Angel and we met him after he pulled me out of Hell. Crowley is the king of Hell and he helped us defeat Lucifer and Rowena is his mother and she's a witch. Claire, the teen, is the daughter of Cas's vessel and was adopted by Jody who we met on a case. Kevin became a prophet and he tried to steal from us and we met Charlie on a case and she became a hunter along with Jody and Claire," Dean explained, trying to get everything out before anyone could interrupt with questions.

After a beat of silence and an apprehensive glance to Cas from Dean, John exploded.

"Angels, Demons, and witches?! What the hell is wrong with you boys?"

When Dean flinched back, Cas stepped in front of Dean and drew his blade once more. Sam expected that reaction and placed a hand on the angel's arm. Cas didn't lower the blade, but he did relax his muscles a bit.

No one was surprised (except Mary).

"You may have raised us with your black and white view of the world, but we had to learn to adapt and work with others to defeat our common enemy," Sam explained, a hint of malice in his voice.

"You watch your tone with me, boy," John ground out.

Charlie and Bobby decided to move over to stand with the boys, Bobby beside Sam and Charlie wrapped around Dean.

Mary didn't know what to think. These men in front of her were apparently her sons, but a minute ago, they were 4 and 6-months-old. They grew up to be handsome, that was for sure. But to learn that her family hunted hurt. That was the reason she had retired, to prevent this. And to see that her youngest and her husband didn't get along didn't help. She didn't miss the way her oldest flinched at John's words, either. Mary was also the only one that was surprised at the way Sam and  _ Cas? _ interacted. If the man currently standing in front of her oldest son really was an Angel, the fact that her youngest son was able to stop him in his tracks with just a hand on his arms was astounding. And that the angel's first instinct was to protect Dean was something else, something,  _ profound _ .

"You may be my father, but you have no control over me. This is a democracy, not a dictatorship. Now shut up and sit down while we figure out why you're here and what to do."

John opened his mouth to retort, but the sound of the tv flickering drew everyone's attention.

The only thing on the screen were the words " _Hello there! I'm God._ "

Dean was shocked to find in the place of his recliners (they better be back at some point or Dean was gonna stab a bitch) was a 4-person couch. The words on the screen changed and everyone moved closer to the tv. " _I bet you're confused as to why they're back._ " After a minute, they changed again. " _You're here to watch Sam and Dean's lives in the form of a tv show._ " Once more. " _Yes, the same show you guys were transported to._ "

Both brothers groaned, Dean leaning forward and dropping his head in his hands. The screen changed one last time, reading " _grab some popcorn, the show will begin in ten minutes._ " A timer began to count down from 10 minutes.


	2. (S1 : E1) Pilot

While Bobby and Cas dragged chairs in from the library and other places, Sam and Dean went to the kitchen to get snacks.

"What do you think it's going to show?" Dean asked while grabbing some cups from the cabinet.

Sam shrugged while getting drinks from the fridge. "I don't know. It could show everything."

Dean just nodded; that's what he was afraid of. They drew their attention back to gathering everything.

When they entered the Dean cave, everyone was seated, and the timer on the tv had 2 minutes left.

Cas helped hand out the drinks and snacks. When they finished, the three sat down in time for the 'show' to begin as the screen went black.

** A house appeared on screen, one that many people in the room recognized. At the bottom of the screen appeared the date, 'November 2, 1989.' **

"No," Dean whispered. It couldn't be this night. Why did it have to be this night?

Cas, sensing his unease, grabbed Dean's hand and gave it a tight squeeze.

Sam leaned forward; he was intrigued. He'd heard about this night a lot from his brother, his dad, and Bobby, but to actually  _ see _ it was something else entirely.

** The camera followed Mary as she walked into a dark room carrying 4-year-old Dean. "Come on, let's say good night to your brother." She flicked on the light switch revealing the room to be baby Sam's nursery. **

"Aww, you guys were so cute as little kids!" Charlie exclaimed, wrapping her arms around Sam's left bicep, seeing as he was the closest to her.

Dean's blush at Charlie's proclamation deepened when Cas leaned over to whisper "you're still super cute."

** Mary set Dean down on the ground so he could climb onto the crib. The boy leaned over and placed a small kiss on Sammy's head. "'Night, Sam." **

"My God, my voice was so  _ high _ ."

"Most 4-year-old boy's voices are, Dean," Jody explained with a small smirk. It was weird but nice seeing her boys so carefree and happy. It didn't happen all that often.

** Mary also leaned over and placed a kiss on Sam's head. "Goodnight, love." **

** "Hey, Dean," a voice called out from behind the small family. The camera turned to show a young John Winchester standing in the doorway. **

** "Daddy!" Dean yelled, hopping off the crib and running toward his father. **

** "Hey, buddy," John smiled as he scooped his eldest into his arms. **

It was odd to see John with a smile on his face. Sam couldn't ever remember a time when John smiled at one of them.

He felt a pang of jealousy knowing that he'd been cheated out of his father's smile.

** "So what do you think? You think Sammy's ready to toss around a football yet?" John asked." **

** Dean shook his head, laughing, "no, Daddy."  **

** John shook his head, agreeing with his son. **

** Mary passed the two on her way out of the room, "you got him?" **

** John nodded, holding Dean closer to him. "I got him." John then walked up to Sam's crib. "Sweet dreams, Sam." John flicked off the lights as he and Dean left the room. **

** The camera then focused on Sam's baseball-themed mobile as it began to spin on its own. The camera then moved to the clock on the wall as it stopped and the nightlight flickered. **

Dean tightened his grip on Cas's hand; he knew what was coming, and he really didn't want to see it, but he knew he had to. He couldn't make himself turn to look at his parents. If he had to guess, they were holding on to each other. 

** The camera shows Mary asleep in bed, the baby monitor on the nightstand beside her flickering. Strange noises began to sound from the machine, stirring Mary from her sleep.  **

** "John?" Mary asked as she turned on the light on the nightstand. She turned over and noticed that she was in bed alone. **

"Don't get out of bed, don't get out of bed," Dean repeated over and over, fully knowing that it wasn't going to change anything.

** Mary made her way to Sam's nursery, stopping when she noticed a silhouetted figure standing before his crib. "Is he hungry?" **

** The man just turned around, "shh." **

** "All right." Mary turned to head further down the hallway. She stopped when she noticed the hallway light flickering. As she tapped it, the flickering stopped.  **

** Mary also noticed flickering emanating from downstairs. As she investigated, she was shocked to find John asleep in the armchair in front of the tv. **

Gasps could be heard echoing around the room and people realized what was about to happen. 

** Mary turned around and dashed back up the stairs and into the nursery. "Sammy! Sammy!" She froze as she entered the room. **

** Back downstairs, John was startled awake at the sound of Mary's scream. **

Both Sam and Dean flinched at the sound of Mary's scream, but for different reasons; Sam because loud sounds trigger his PTSD and Dean because it hurt to relive his Mother's death, to hear the same scream he heard when he was 4-years-old and in the next room over. It had taken Dean  _ years _ to get over the sound of Mary's screams. They'd haunted his mind day and night. 

** "Mary!" John rushed into the room but came to a stop when he realized nothing was wrong. When he noticed Sam was awake in his crib, John walked over. "Hey, Sammy. You ok?" **

** Suddenly, something dark dripped onto Sam's pillow beside his head. Confused, John dabbed the drop with his fingers. Two more landed on the back of his hand. They looked like blood. When John looked up, he collapsed to the ground. **

** Mary was sprawled across the ceiling, the stomach of her nightgown red with blood, staring at John and struggling to breathe. **

** "No! Mary!" **

** Mary burst into flames, the fire spreading across the ceiling with the flames licking the walls.  **

Dean leaned over and buried his face into Cas's shoulder, not caring who saw. Cas hooked one arm around Dean's shoulder and placed his free hand on the back of Dean's head, holding him close.

** As Sam began to wail, John was reminded he wasn't alone and he scooped the baby up into his arms before running out of the room.  **

** Suddenly, little Dean came to investigate the sounds. "Daddy!" **

** John turned to look at his eldest son, shoving Dean into his arms. "Take your brother outside as fast as you can and don't look back! Now, Dean, go!" Dean turned and ran while John turned to look back to the nursery. "Mary! No!"  **

** Mary at that point had been completely swallowed by the flames, barely able to be seen. **

** The camera changed to show Dean running outside with little Sam in his arms. John rushed into the scene, scooping both his boys into his arms, and kept running. "I gotcha."  **

** Fire exploded out of Sammy's nursery window. **

When the fire consumed the house, Dean flinched, hard. Cas just tightened his grip. Dean hid it well, but Sam and Cas knew of his deep-seated fear of fire. During a salt and burn, Dean would try his best to not look at the fire; and when he would grill, he would stand as far away as he could while still being able to reach it easily. It was something they both tried to help him overcome, and they'd made some progress, but it was something he still struggled with.

** As firefighters tried to stop the fire, the camera showed John sitting on the hood of his car, Sam in his lap while Dean sits on the Impala beside him.  **

** The screen went black for a second before the words 'Stanford University, Present day' appeared on screen. The date, October 31, 2005, followed. **

"Not so present," Crowley stated, causing Rowena to smack him in the arm.

Dean, who was much calmer at that point, let out a small chuckle.

Crowley gave a quick smile to his mother, proud of cheering up his best friend at least a little bit.

** Somebody's bedroom is shown with no one on the screen. **

** "Sam!" A lady yelled from the other room. She walked in wearing a sexy nurse costume while adjusting her hat. The dresser she's standing beside holds a framed picture of Mary and John, the same one on Mary's nightstand. **

** "Get a move on, would you?" She asked. "We were supposed to be there fifteen minutes ago." **

"Sam, being late? I never thought the day would come," Charlie pretended to faint into Sam's arms, who was rolling his eyes with a smile on his face.

"Yeah, yeah, laugh it up," Sam said, sitting Charlie upright in her spot. "I didn't like Halloween all that much.  _ Still _ don't like it that much." At that, Sam's eyes darkened, probably remembering what happened a few days later.

"C'mon, you used to  _ love _ Halloween as a kid. All the different costumes I had to make for you." Dean mentioned.

"Well, yeah, that was before my life became a horror movie."

Dean went quiet. He still regretted having to tell Sam about what their Dad did, what Dean ended up doing.

Sam, practically hearing Dean's thoughts, grabbed Dean's hand. "I don't blame you. I would've found out eventually. As much as you wanted me to, I wasn't going to stay an innocent little kid forever."

Dean, not knowing what else to say, just nodded. "Yeah, I know."

** The lady walked off, shouting Sam's name. **

** The tall and lanky form of Sam peeked around the corner. His shaggy hair was in his eyes, and he was clean-shaven. He was also wearing three shirts and jeans, definitely not a costume. **

"Nice costume, Moose. Are you a homeless person?" Crowley quipped.

Sam just responded by rolling his eyes. As much as they hated to admit it, Crowley had become just as much family as Charlie and Kevin had, maybe even more. His death had hurt more than they thought it would, so to have him back made them happy. He didn't deserve to die like that, to be another one to sacrifice themselves for the Winchesters. 

** "Do I have to?" Sam asked. **

** "Yes! It'll be fun." Jess frowned when she saw Sam not wearing a costume. "And where's your costume?" **

** Sam just ducked his head and laughed. "You know how I feel about Halloween." **

** The scene switches to a bar decorated for Halloween. Everyone's spread out wearing different costumes. **

** Jess raised a glass as their friend Luis, who dressed as a ghoul, came up to the table Sam and Jess were sitting. Sam hadn't changed. **

** "So here's to Sam and his awesome LSAT victory," Jess announced. **

** "All right, all right, it's not that big a deal," Sam mumbled loud enough for them all to hear as they all clinked their glasses. **

** "Yeah, he acts all humble. But he scored a 174," Jess said. **

** Luis looked at Jess, "Is that good?" **

** Jess nodded, taking a sip of her drink, "scary good." **

"Holy shit," Jody whispered.

"Would you look at that, my baby brother's a genius," Dean announced, a wide smile splitting his face.

"Ooh, what if there was a lore-based LSAT. Imagine the scores you two would get compared to other hunters," Charlie effused, turning to talk to Kevin about creating one to share with the Hunter network.

"Both of your scores would be off the charts," Bobby chimed in, smiling when Dean blushed and ducked his head. 

"It wouldn't be fair to any other hunter except Bobby and Jody."

One look at Sam and Dean could tell the cogs were spinning. "Maybe not, but that would give us a general idea as to what the average hunter knows, then allow us to teach them. We could be way more efficient this way."

While the group was talking about the Hunter test, John and Mary were watching from the outside. Both of them had been dead longer than anyone else in the room. Neither of them knew how to feel about the little family their sons had built for themselves. John was especially not happy at how close Dean and the angel seemed to be, but he couldn't do anything with everyone else there.

Mary, on the other hand, was sad. She had missed most of her boys' lives, and seeing her boys in the hunting life hurt. That was exactly what she was trying to avoid. She was scared to see how their lives had turned out.

** "So there you go. You are a first-round draft pick. You can go to any law school you want!" Luis said, sitting down next to Sam. **

** "Actually, I got an interview here. Monday. If it goes okay I think I got a shot at a full ride next year." **

"Way to go, son!" Bobby cheered. 

Sam blushed and ducked his head as Dean patted his back. 

Mary smacked John in the arm when she saw John's glare. John had spent many hours  _ telling _ Bobby that those boys weren't his son's, they were  _ his _ .

** "Hey, it's gonna go great," Jess said. **

** "It better," Sam mumbled. **

** "How does it feel to be the golden boy of your family?" Luis asked.  **

** "Ah, they don't know." **

** "Oh, no, I would be gloating! Why not?" **

** Sam let out a small laugh. "Because we're not exactly the Brady's." **

** "And I'm not exactly the Huxtables. More shots?" **

"Yeah, well the Huxtables weren't exactly the Huxtables," Dean mumbled as he ducked his head. He missed the way that Cas and Sam looked at each other over his head.

"I'm sorry," Sam whispered in his ear, but Dean just shook his head.

"It's fine." Sam gave him a look, not quite believing that, but let it go anyway.

** "No," Sam and Jess spoke at the same time. **

** Luis just shrugged and went up to the bar anyway. **

** Jess turned to look at Sam. "No, seriously. I'm proud of you. And you're gonna knock 'em dead on Monday, and you're gonna get that full ride. I know it. " **

** "What would I do without you?" Sam asked with pure and unadulterated love in his eyes. **

** Jess shrugged. "Crash and burn," she smiled as she pulled him in for a kiss. **

Sam blushed as a couple of people (namely Dean and Charlie) gave loud wolf whistles.

"That's my boy!" Dean shouted as he threw his arm around his little brother's shoulders.

"Shut up, Jerk," Sam smirked as he lightly shoved his older brother off of him.

"Bitch," Dean smirked back.

Unbeknownst to them, Cas and Bobby were pretending to ignore the looks John and Mary were throwing at their sons. Especially the glare from John toward Cas and Dean.

** They were back at Sam and Jess's apartment, both of them asleep back to back in bed. **

** Sam opened his eyes when he heard the sound of a window opening come from somewhere within the apartment. He got out of bed and made his way toward where the sound came from, the living room. **

** The living room window was open, which had been closed before he and Jess went to bed. **

** Sam heard the footsteps before he saw the shadow creep past the beaded curtain at the end of the hall.  **

** When the man entered the room, Sam lunged forward and grabbed the man at the shoulder. The man knocked Sam's arm away and aimed a strike at him, but he ducked. The man grabbed Sam's arm, swung him around, and shoved him back. Sam kicked and was blocked, then pushed back into another room. The man elbowed Sam in the face; Sam kicked at his head. The man ducked and swung and Sam blocked. The man knocked Sam down and pinned him to the floor, one hand at Sam's neck and the other holding Sam's wrist. **

"Whoa, that was awesome! You  _ gotta _ teach me that some time, Dean," Charlie begged. And well, Dean had never been able to say no to anyone's puppy-dog face.

"Fine," Dean relented.

"Yay!" Charlie got up from her seat and plopped herself down in Dean's lap, wrapping her arms around his neck. 

Dean rolled his eyes but buried a smile in the crook of her neck as he wrapped his arms around her waist. He knew what she was doing, but he didn't care. Charlie learned very early on that he was extremely touch-starved, that he craved even the most platonic physical affection. There were many times when Cas was out doing something for days or weeks at a time where Charlie would come by the Bunker, and they'd cuddle (platonically, of course) and watch movies all day long.

She knew the beginning of this episode was rough for him, so she was comforting him in one of the most effective ways she knew: physical touch, a reminder that everything was fine, and that nothing would go wrong.

Besides Cas, Charlie was the only one that knew that he was touch-starved. He was afraid of what Bobby would think of him (even though he knew logically that there was no way in Hell Bobby would ever judge him for it), and he had to stay strong for Sammy. Nothing came before him, not even his own trauma.

** "Whoa, easy there tiger," the man said, a smile on his face. **

** Sam let out a hard breath. "Dean?" **

** Dean just laughed. **

** "You scared the crap out of me!" **

** "That's 'cause you're out of practice." **

** Sam then proceeded to grab Dean's hand and yanked him, slamming his heel into Dean's back and Dean to the floor. **

** "Or not." **

** Sam tapped Dean twice on the shoulder where he was holding him. **

** "Alright, get off of me," Dean said. **

** Sam rolled to his feet and pulled Dean up. "What the hell are you doing here?" **

** "Well, I was looking for a beer," Dean explained, placing his hands on Sam's shoulders, shaking once, then letting go.  **

** Sam didn't budge. "What the hell are you doing here?" he repeated. **

** "Ok. All right. We gotta talk." **

** "Uh, the phone?" Sam suggested. **

** "If I'd'a called, would you have picked up?" Dean asked instead. **

Sam went to apologize again but was stopped by a hand in the air, the universal sign for ' _ shut up. _ '

Dean was right, though. At that time, Sam wanted nothing to do with his old life, including his older brother. Dean had called a few times a couple of weeks after Sam had left, but after a combination of Sam either ignoring him or answering as concisely as possible, Dean had stopped calling altogether. The last time he called was on Sam's birthday in his first year at Stanford.

Sam had later found out that John had left him soon after, and Dean's self-harm and suicidal tendencies had skyrocketed; he'd nearly lost his brother a multitude of times in the span of 3-years. And to think that no one would've even known until possibly months after still shook Sam to his core.

That must've been a living hell to his older brother; to think that the kid he'd raised, the one he sacrificed everything for daily, hated him, wanted nothing to do with him.

And Dean still, after all these years, would do anything and everything to make sure his brother was safe. Even sell his soul and suffer eternal damnation to save him.

His brother was a hero, and Dean was the only one that didn't believe it.

"With all the time you boys spend together, you'd think you've never spent a night away from the other," Jody said.

"Oh trust me, I'd go insane if I had to spend the rest of eternity with him and his rabbit food and his shaggy hair and puppy dog eyes," Dean exaggerated. 

Sam just rolled his eyes and smacked his brother in the arm. "Bitch."

"Jerk," Dean shot back, a shit-eating grin on his face.

** Before Sam could answer, Jess walked in and turned on the light. She was wearing short shorts and a cropped Smurfs shirt; her favorite pj's. **

** "Sam?" **

** Both boys turned to look at her.  **

** "Jess. Hey. Dean, this is my girlfriend, Jessica," Sam introduced. **

** "Wait, your brother, Dean?" Jess asked, smiling as Sam nodded his head. **

** Dean grinned and moved closer. "Oh, I love the Smurfs. Ya know, I gotta tell ya. You're completely out of my brother's league." **

** As if just noticing what she was wearing, she looked down at her shirt. "Just let me put something on." She turned to go, but Dean's voice stopped her. **

** "No, no, no, I wouldn't dream of it. Seriously." **

"There is something seriously wrong with you," Sam said, shaking his head at Dean.

His brother just smiled and tightened his grip on Charlie. "Don't you know it!"

On the other side of Dean, Cas grabbed Dean's hand that was resting on Charlie's legs. "And I love you for it," Cas kissed his knuckles.

Charlie giggled and Dean blushed and buried his face in her hair while Cas sat there with a self-satisfied smirk on his face. 

The angel turned around when he felt a heavy hand land on his shoulder. He found Bobby sitting there with a small smile on his face. Just past Bobby, however, sat John with a barely contained glare pointed right at him. Mary was too busy watching the screen to notice.

"Just ignore him," Bobby whispered in his ear.

"I intend to," Cas stated, then turned his attention back to the screen.

** Dean went back over to Sam without taking his eyes off Jess. Sam watched him, his expression stony. **

** "Anyway, I gotta borrow your boyfriend here, talk about some private family business," Dean announced. "But, uh, nice meeting you." **

** "No." Sam went over to Jess and put an arm around her. "No, whatever you want to say, you can say it in front of her. **

** "Okay." Dean turned to look at them both straight on. "Um. Dad hasn't been home in a few days." **

** "So he's working overtime on a Miller Time shift. He'll stumble back in sooner or later," Sam dismissed.  **

"And what's that supposed to mean?" John demanded, not liking the implications of that sentence.

Dean attempted to stop Sam from continuing, but it fell flat. 

"It means you spent more of our childhood at the bottom of a bottle than being our father."

John shot out of his seat, Sam quickly following. Charlie, Kevin, and Claire being the fastest in the group dashed to stand between the two.

"Get out of my way," John ground out.

"Not unless you swear not to start a fight," Kevin insisted.

When John reluctantly nodded a minute later, everyone sat back down in their rightful spots, meaning Charlie was no longer sitting in Dean's lap. Though

** Dean ducked his head and looked back up. "Dad's on a hunting trip. And he hasn't been home in a few days. **

** Sam's expression didn't change while he took this in. Jess glanced up at him. "Jess, excuse us. We have to go outside." **

** The camera cut to Sam and Dean heading downstairs outside. Sam has put on jeans and a hoodie. **

** "I mean, come on. You can't just break in, middle of the night, and expect me to hit the road with you," Sam groused. **

** "You're not hearing me, Sammy. Dad's missing. I need you to help me find him." **

** "You remember the poltergeist in Amherst? Or the Devil's Gates in Clifton? He was missing then, too. He's always missing, and he's always fine." **

"Wait, he didn't check in during a hunt?" Claire asked. 

Dean shook his head. "He'd do two or three hunts before coming to get us from whatever motel we were staying at."

Nearly everyone glared at John, but he wasn't paying attention. He was too busy glowering at Dean, who was watching the screen.

** Dean stopped and turned around. Sam stopped too. **

** "Not for this long. Now are you gonna come with me or not?" **

** "I'm not." **

** "Why not?" **

** "I swore I was done hunting. For good," Sam explained. **

** "Come on. It wasn't easy, but it wasn't that bad," Dean said as he started downstairs again.  **

** Sam followed, "Yeah? When I told Dad I was scared of the thing in my closet, he gave me a .45." **

"You did what?!" Mary bellowed, glaring at John.

John, for once in his life, looked afraid. "He needed to face his fear."

It was clear Mary wanted to say something else, but her anger was overwhelming. Instead, she just turned back to the tv.

Meanwhile, the teens (including Sam, Dean, and Charlie) were trying to stifle their laughter at John's fear.

** Dean stopped at the door to the outside. "Well, what was he supposed to do?" **

"He was supposed to go into your closet and show you there was nothing there," Kevin muttered under his breath, quiet enough that John didn't hear it.

Claire, however, wasn't as reserved as Kevin. "Man, I'm messed up, but even I know that's wrong."

That one hit Dean pretty hard, and Cas could tell. He turned back to see Jody smack Claire in the arm. Turning back to look at Dean, he found the hunter slouching a bit further down in his seat, though his face gave nothing away. Cas began to rub circles on the back of Dean's hand with his thumb. The angel found he was successful when he saw Dean gave a small smile his way.

** "I was nine years old! He was supposed to say, don't be afraid of the dark," Sam snapped. **

** "Don't be afraid of the dark? Are you kidding me? Of course you should be afraid of the dark. You know what's out there." **

** Sam sighed. "Yeah, I know, but still. The way we grew up, after Mom was killed, and Dad's obsession to find the thing that killed her." **

** Dean turned to glance outside. **

** "But we still haven't found the damn thing. So we kill everything we  _ can _ find." **

** "We save a lot of people doing it, too," Dean countered. **

"Yeah, we do," Dean cheered, raising a hand for his little brother to high-five, which he did.

** Sam paused. "You think Mom would have wanted this for us?" **

"No, I didn't. I never wanted this for you boys," Mary lamented. "I tried so hard to make sure you didn't end up here."

Both brothers turned to look at their mom. It was still weird for both of them to have her back, but watching the show was giving them time to get used to it.

"We know, Mom," Sam said, quirking his lips into a quick smile before turning back around. 

Dean didn't know what to say, so he just gave a small smile before following his brother.

"Wait, what do you mean you didn't want them to end up here? You knew about the life?" John asked.

Mary gave John an incredulous look. "Did I know about the life? I grew up a hunter, and I managed to get out. I never wanted them to become hunters and I never told you because I thought it'd freak you out and I didn't want to risk you wanting to become a hunter, but I guess that didn't matter," she ranted. When she finished, she crossed her arms and fell back against her seat.

John widened his eyes and was in shock. Not only had his wife been a hunter, but she came from a family of hunters. He didn't know what to think and just stared at the screen.

** Dean rolled his eyes and slammed the door open. **

** The camera then changed to show Sam and Dean walking down the stairs to the parking lot. **

** "The weapon training, and melting the silver into bullets? Man, Dean, we were raised like warriors," Sam continued. **

** They crossed the parking lot to the Impala, the same car the small family was sitting on after escaping the fire in the beginning. **

** "So what are you gonna do? You're just gonna live some normal, apple pie life? Is that it?" Dean scoffed. **

** "No. Not normal. Safe," Sam corrected. **

** "And that's why you ran away," Dean accused as he looked away. **

Dean released his hold on Cas's hand to rest his elbow on his lap, placing his chin on his fist. He always hated thinking about that night; it was one of the worst of his life. The beating he'd received that night from John nearly rivaled Alistair's torture. Thankfully, though, Cas removed the scars from John's beatings when he pulled his ass out of the pit. Though, he also erased his self-harm scars. Granted, most of them were back, and not through Cas's doing. But it wasn't hidden from his family this time.

** "I was just going to college. It was Dad who said if I was gonna go I should stay gone. And that's what I'm doing." **

"You weren't supposed to listen," Dean whispered, though both Cas and Sam heard him anyway.

** "Yeah, well, Dad's in real trouble right now. If he's not dead already. I can feel it." **

** Sam was silent. **

** "I can't do this alone." **

** "Yes you can," Sam retorted. **

** Dean looked down. "Yeah, well, I don't want to." **

** Sam sighed and looked down, thinking, then up. **

** "What was he hunting?" He asked. **

** Dean opened the trunk of the Impala, then the spare-tire compartment. It's their arsenal. He propped the compartment open with a shotgun and dug through the clutter. **

"That's a lot of stuff," Kevin said.

"Yeah, that was before we knew about angels and demons. You should see it now," Dean bragged. He loved his car, sue him.

** "All right, let's see, where the hell did I put that thing?" **

** "So when Dad left, why didn't you go with him?" Sam asked. **

** "I was working my own gig. This, uh, voodoo thing, down in New Orleans," Dean responded. **

** "Dad let you go on a hunting trip by yourself?" Sam was surprised. **

** Dean looked over at Sam. "I'm twenty-six, dude." **

"Well, you look like a baby. So, therefore, you're a baby," Jody joked.

Sam broke out into laughter at Dean's slack-jawed expression. "Holy shit, Jody. That was good!"

"I'm not letting you off easy, mister. You're even younger, so you're more of a baby than he is," the Sheriff retorted.

Sam stopped laughing and glared at Jody while Dean stuck his tongue out at his little brother. When Sam saw, he jabbed his brother in the ribs. It escalated quickly into them rolling around on the floor wrestling.

Bobby leaned forward in his seat toward Cas. "Should we stop them?"

Cas smiled, then shook his head. "No. They need this."

Bobby nodded and sat back to enjoy the sight of his boys being boys for the first time in a long time.

When the brothers were finally done, they sat back down in their seats, thankfully without bruises, and the show continued.

** Dean pulled some papers out of a folder. "All right, here we go. So Dad was checking out this two-lane blacktop just outside of Jericho, California. About a month ago, this guy." **

** Dean handed one of the papers to SAM. **

** "They found his car, but he vanished. Completely MIA," Dean finished. The paper was a printout of an article from the  _ Jericho Herald _ , headlined "Centennial Highway Disappearance" and dated Sept. 19th 2005; it has a man's picture, captioned "Andrew Carey MISSING".  **

** Sam read it and glanced up. "So maybe he was kidnapped." **

** "Yeah. Well, here's another one in April." Dean tossed down another  _ Jericho Herald _ article for each date he mentioned. **

** "Another one in December 'oh-four, 'oh-three, 'ninety-eight, 'ninety-two, ten of them over the past twenty years." **

** Dean took the article back from Sam and picked up the rest of the stack, putting them back in the folder. "All men, all the same five-mile stretch of road." He pulled a bag out of another part of the arsenal. "It started happening more and more, so Dad went to go dig around. That was about three weeks ago. I hadn't heard from him since, which is bad enough." **

** Dean grabbed a handheld tape recorder. "Then I get this voicemail yesterday." **

** He pressed play. The recording was staticky and the signal was clearly breaking up. "Dean...something big is starting to happen...I need to try and figure out what's going on. It may... Be very careful, Dean. We're all in danger," John's voice rang through the phone. **

"Well that's not ominous at all," Kevin muttered.

** Dean pressed stop. **

** "You know there's EVP on that?" Sam asked. **

** "Not bad, Sammy. Kinda like riding a bike, isn't it?" **

** Sam shook his head. **

** "All right. I slowed the message down, I ran it through a gold wave, took out the hiss, and this is what I got," Dean explained. He pressed play again. **

** "I can never go home..." A woman's voice whispered through the phone. **

** Dean pressed stop on the recording once again. **

"Creepy," Claire whispered.

** "Never go home," Sam repeated. **

** Dean dropped the recorder and put down the shotgun, standing up straight and shut the trunk, leaning back on it. **

** "You know, in almost two years I've never bothered you, never asked you for a thing," Dean lamented. **

"The only other time you've spent nearly that amount of time apart was when we were in Purgatory," Cas commented.

"You went to PURGATORY?!" John bellowed. 

"Yeah? But I didn't mean to, Cas and I just got caught in the blast of exploding dick," Dean snickered under his breath, trying to explain himself while also making it out to be less of a deal than it was. It worked, seeing as everyone who knew what happened began to chuckle.

** Sam looked away and sighed, then looked back. "All right. I'll go. I'll help you find him." **

** Dean nodded, a small smile on his face. **

** "But I have to get back first thing Monday. Just wait here." **

** Sam turned to go back to the apartment. He turned back when Dean spoke. **

** "What's first thing Monday?" **

** "I have this...I have an interview," Sam explained. **

** "What, a job interview? Skip it." **

** "It's a law school interview, and it's my whole future on a plate." **

** "Law school?" Dean smirked. **

** "So we got a deal or not?" **

** Dean said nothing, just looked down at the ground. **

"What school were you applying to?" Jody asked.

"I don't remember, it's been too long," Sam responded.

"Why is it hard to imagine Sam as a lawyer?" Kevin probed.

"Probably because he's been Hunting for so long. It's hard to imagine him doing anything else," Charlie explained.

"That's fair," Claire added.

"I'm right here, you know," Sam asserted with a small smile on his face.

"We know, we just don't care," Charlie slowly drawled out, trying to keep from laughing.

Sam just rolled his eyes and looked back at the screen.

** Back in the apartment, Sam was packing a duffel bag. He pulled out a large hook-shaped knife and slid it inside. Jess came into the room. **

"What the hell do you need that for?" Claire asked, having never seen a weapon like that before.

"It's good for hooking things and cutting through bone. I don't remember what it's called, but it was pretty useful," Sam explained.

"Man, I haven't seen that thing in  _ years _ . I didn't even know you had it," Dean chuckled.

** "Wait, you're taking off?" Jess asked. Sam paused his packing and looked up. "Is this about your dad? Is he all right?" **

** "Yeah. You know, just a little family drama," Sam said. He went over to the dresser and turned on the lamp atop it. **

** "Your brother said he was on some kind of hunting trip." Jess sat on the bed.  **

** Sam rummaged in one of the drawers and came out with a couple of shirts, which went in the duffel. "Oh, yeah, he's just deer hunting up at the cabin, he's probably got Jim, Jack, and José along with him. I'm just going to go bring him back." **

Before John could start protesting, he froze when he saw everyone glaring at him. He may have been a seasoned hunter, but even he knew to be afraid of two teenagers, an Angel, two hunters (even though they're his sons), a hunter cop, a hacker, and an old drunk.

** "What about the interview?" Jess asked. **

** "I'll make the interview. This is only for a couple days," Sam said. He went around the bed.  **

** Jess got up and followed. "Sam, I mean, please." Sam stopped and turned. "Just stop for a second. You sure you're okay?" **

** Sam laughed a little. "I'm fine." **

** "It's just...you won't even talk about your family. And now you're taking off in the middle of the night to spend a weekend with them? And with Monday coming up, which is kind of a huge deal." **

"Hey, who wouldn't leave in the middle of the night with me?" Dean asked, a smirk lighting up his face.

Sam leaned over toward his brother. "I  _ will _ smack you."

Before Dean could say anything back, Cas leaned over on the other side of him. "Don't encourage him."

Dean placed a hand over his heart in mock hurt. "You wound me."

Cas rolled his eyes and placed a quick kiss on Dean's lips.

The hunter smiled, "all better."

The angel just patted his hand and looked back at the screen.

** "Hey. Everything's going to be okay. I will be back in time, I promise." Sam kissed her on the cheek and left. **

** "At least tell me where you're going," Jess called as he disappeared. **

"You didn't even tell her where she was going?" Jody asked, using her slightly disappointed 'mom' voice. Nearly everyone in the room knew it well.

Sam shrugged. "I didn't think it mattered."

** The screen read "Jericho, California."  **

** Music was playing in the background as a young guy was driving down the highway, talking on his cell phone. **

** "Amy, I can't come over tonight. Because I've got work in the morning, that's why. ...Yeah, okay, I miss it and my dad's gonna have my ass." **

** Suddenly a high-pitched whine sound from nowhere. The guy looked over and saw a woman in a white dress on the side of the road. She was moving as though dancing; she flickered, and for a moment she was gone. **

** "Hey, ah, Amy, let me call you back?" The guy tried several times to turn off the radio, which was flickering. Nothing happened. He pulled up next to the lady, whose dress was torn in several places, and stopped, leaning across the shotgun seat. **

** "Car trouble or something?" He asked. **

** After a long pause, the woman spoke, "Take me home?" **

"Just  _ not _ gonna question her flickering in and out of existence? No, we just gonna ignore that?" 

"Kevin, you should know that when a guy sees a pretty woman, it doesn't matter if she's a ghost, a demon, whatever. As long as she's not trying to kill him, they don't care."

"And how would you know, Dean?" Cas drawled out, throwing a side glance Dean's way.

"Umm, because I'm a guy?" A minute of silence passed. "I love you," Dean tried.

"I know."

Charlie gasped from the other side of Sam. "Did you just Han Solo him?"

Dean chortled. "I guess he did."

"I don't understand that reference."

Dean leaned against Cas's. "I know, babe. I know."

** The woman's voice is the same one from John's voicemail.  **

** The guy opened the passenger door. "Sure, get in." **

** The woman, who was barefoot, climbed in and closed the door. **

** "So, where do you live?" The guy asked, trying to start up a conversation. **

** "At the end of Breckenridge Road," She told him. **

** He nodded. "You coming from a Halloween party or something?" **

** The lady's dress was very low-cut. The guy noticed, stared, and looked away, laughing nervously. **

** "You know, a girl like you really shouldn't be alone out here." **

"Yeah, cause then she'd run into weirdos like you," Claire mumbled under her breath.

** She looked at him mournfully, seductively, and pulled her skirt up over her thigh. "I'm with you." **

"Ahh yes, because that explains  _ everything _ ."

** He looked away. The woman took his chin and turned his face towards her. **

** "Do you think I'm pretty?" **

** He nodded, eyes stuck on her cleavage. **

** "Uh...huh." **

"Real subtle there, buddy boy. You have a girlfriend."

** "Will you come home with me?" **

** "Um. Hell yeah." He drove off. **

** They pulled up to an old abandoned house at the end of a road. The woman stared at it sadly. **

"Yeah, this place doesn't really scream 'homely'."

** "Come on. You don't live here." **

** "I can never go home." **

** "What are you talking about? Nobody even lives here. Where do you live?" He turned and noticed she was gone. He checked the back seat, also empty, and got out of the car, nervous. **

"What the hell, man? Vanishing girl? Just get out of there," Dean called out, ignoring the fact that it was his past and the people on screen couldn't hear him.

** "That's good. Joke's over, okay? You want me to leave?" **

** Troy looked around: no signs of life except crickets. He walked toward the house. "Hello? Hello?" **

** There was a picture of the Lady and two kids inside the house and it was covered in dust. **

** Troy peered through the hole in the screen door. A bird flew at his face, scaring him into falling over. He yelled, leaped to his feet, and ran back to the car. He got in and drove off. **

"There's no way that's the end of that."

** Somewhere on Centennial Highway, Troy looked behind him. No one was there; then he checked in the rearview mirror. The woman was in the back seat. Troy yelled again and drove straight through a "Bridge Closed" sign, stopping about halfway across the bridge. He screamed, and blood spattered the windows. **

"What did she even do to him?" Claire asked.

"I have no clue," Jody told her.

** It's November 1, 2005. The Impala is parked in front of a pump at a gas station. "Ramblin' Man" by the Allman Brothers was playing in the background. **

** Dean came out of the store, his arms loaded up with junk food. **

"Dean, how you're still alive from all that junk food is a miracle," Jody said with a smile on her face.

"Technically, I didn't even make it to 30," Dean corrected without thinking. When it hit him what he said, he looked around the room and saw various degrees of shock, confusion, and grief. He wasn't surprised when he turned to his boyfriend and found a small smile on his face.

"Fuck," he whispered. "I'm sorry."

Cas just grabbed his hand and squeezed.

"At least none of your 100+ deaths were due to your eating habits," Kevin noted. 

"Well, I did die of a taco once."

Sam covered half his face and leaned back in his seat, loudly groaning. He smiled when he peaked between his fingers and saw Dean giggling and Cas smiling down at him.

** Sam was sitting shotgun with the door open, rifling through a box of Dean's tapes. **

** "Hey!" Dean shouted. Sam leaned out the door and looked at him. "You want breakfast? **

** "No, thanks," Sam called out, turning back to look through the box. "So how'd you pay for that stuff? You and Dad still running credit card scams?" **

"Could you have said that any louder?" Claire asked.

** "Yeah, well, hunting ain't exactly a pro ball career," Dean said as he put the nozzle back on the pump. "Besides, all we do is apply. It's not our fault they send us the cards." **

** "Yeah? And what names did you write on the application this time?" Sam asked as he swung his legs back inside the car and closed the door. **

** "Uh, Burt Aframian." Dean got into the driver's seat and put his soda and chips down. "And his son Hector. Scored two cards out of the deal," he said as closed the door. **

** "That sounds about right. I swear, man, you've gotta update your cassette tape collection," Sam said as he threw a tape back in the box on his lap. It was filled with at least a dozen cassettes; some had album art while others had hand-labeled. **

** "Why? **

** "Well, for one, they're cassette tapes. And two," Sam held up a tape for every band he named, "Black Sabbath? Motorhead? Metallica?" **

** Dean grabbed the Metallic tape from his brother's hand and took off its case. **

** "It's the greatest hits of mullet rock," Sam told him. **

"They're the greatest hits of rock," Dean corrected.

Mary smiled at the thought of her eldest son listening to all the songs she and John used to dance to. Actually, the more she thought about it, she was pretty sure he was also wearing John's leather jacket, too. And driving Baby, which was also considered John's car. As she looked over at her husband, she wondered just how her boys had been raised, and why Dean was practically copying his father.

** "Well, house rules, Sammy," Dean started as he popped the tape in the cassette deck, "driver picks the music, shotgun shuts his cakehole." Dean dropped the Metallica case back in the box of tapes and started the engine. **

** "You know, Sammy is a chubby twelve-year-old." **

"You will always be Sammy to me," Dean chortled with a smirk.

"Does that mean I'll always be a chubby twelve-year-old to you or just a child in general?"

Just to mess with him, Dean said "both" and winked. He laughed at his brother's glare. Then he gripped his arm where Sam slugged him.

"You suck."

Dean just threw his arm around his little brother's shoulders and Sam rested his head back on his older brother's left shoulder. "You'll always be my little kid to me." 

Everyone ignored the fact that Dean called Sam his kid, everyone except John and Mary. They both looked over at them in confusion and shock. What the hell?

John had to keep himself from saying anything. Since when was Sam  _ Dean's _ son? It's not like Dean  _ raised _ the kid. He would've said something, but he knew that he would've been shut down by Bobby and maybe the cop.

While that was going through John's head, Mary was thinking about what else could've happened to make Dean call Sam  _ his _ son. She was beginning to see a pattern, and it didn't sit well with her.

** "Back in Black" by AC/DC began to play. **

** "It's Sam, okay?" **

** Dean cupped a hand around his ear and leaned closer to his brother. "Sorry, I can't hear you, the music's too loud." **

** Sam rolled his eyes as Dean drove off. **

** On the highway, they drove past a sign that said "JERICHO 7". **

** Talking on the phone, Sam said "thank you" before closing it. **

** "All right. So, there's no one matching Dad at the hospital or morgue. So that's something, I guess." **

** Dean glanced over at Sam, then back at the road. On the bridge ahead of them, there were two police cars and several officers. **

** "Check it out," Dean said. **

** Sam leaned forward for a closer look. **

** Dean pulled over. Both brothers stared at all the officers for a minute before Dean cut the engine. Dean leaned across Sam and opened the glove compartment, pulling out a box full of ID cards with his and JOHN's faces: visible ones include FBI and DEA. He picked one out and grinned at Sam, who stared at him. **

"Holy shit, look at that one badge! You had long hair, Dean?!" Charlie asked, pointing to one of the badges where Dean indeed had hair as long as Sam's.

Sam, Charlie, Claire, Kevin, Jody, and even Bobby began to laugh.

"Ha-ha, very fun. Yes I had long hair. The chicks dug it," Dean boasted, a smug smile on his face.

Sam looked at Dean with one of the most ' _ that's bullshit' _ faces he'd had in a while. "Oh yeah, how many dates did you get during that time?"

Dean opened his mouth to answer but paused, then after a few seconds, looked up to think. When he didn't answer, Sam began to laugh again.

That snapped him out of his trance and he jabbed Sam in the ribs. "Shut up, bitch."

"Jerk."

Cas smiled at seeing the two brothers getting along. After everything with the Mark and Dean being a demon, they'd kind of drifted apart. It was nice to see them just being themselves, even if they  _ were _ acting like toddlers. 

** "Let's go," Dean said as he got out of the car. **

** On the bridge, the lead deputy, Deputy Jaffe, leaned over the railing to yell down to two men in wetsuits who were poking around the river. **

** "You guys find anything?" **

** "No! Nothing!" One of them called back up. **

** Jaffe turned back to the car in the middle of the bridge. It turned out to be Troy's from the night before, all the blood gone from the windows. Another deputy, Deputy Hein, was at the driver's side looking around inside the car. **

** "No sign of struggle, no footprints, no fingerprints. Spotless. It's almost too clean," Hein announced. **

** Sam and Dean walked into the crime scene like they belonged there, which in a way, they did. **

** "So, this kid Troy. He's dating your daughter, isn't he?" Jaffe asked. **

** "Yeah." **

** "How's Amy doing?" **

** "She's putting up missing posters downtown." **

** "You fellas had another one like this just last month, didn't you?" Dean asked once they finally reached the car. **

** Jaffe looked up when Dean started talking and straightened up to talk to him. "And who are you?" **

** Dean flashed his badge. "Federal marshals." **

** "You two are a little young for marshals, aren't you?" **

"Both of you break the regulations for most of the agencies you pretend to be from," Jody whispered, Claire giving her a weird look.

** Dean laughed. "Thanks, that's awfully kind of you." He headed over to the car. "You did have another one just like this, correct?" **

** "Yeah, that's right. About a mile up the road. There've been others before that," Jaffe explained. **

** "So, this victim, you knew him?" Sam asked. **

** The deputy nodded. "Town like this, everybody knows everybody." **

** Dean circled the car, looking around, "any connection between the victims, besides that they're all men?" **

** "No. Not so far as we can tell." **

** "So what's the theory?" Sam questioned as he made his way over to Dean. **

** "Honestly, we don't know. Serial murder? Kidnapping ring?" **

"Really?  _ Kidnapping _ ring? That's the best they could do?" Jody scoffed. She'd had conversations with officers who came up with ridiculous stories for cases that they were stuck on.

** "Well, that is exactly the kind of crack police work I'd expect out of you guys," Dean said, letting out a small grunt as Sam stomped on Dean's foot. **

** "Thank you for your time." Sam started to walk away and Dean followed. "Gentlemen." **

** Jaffe watched them go.  **

** When they were out of earshot, Dean smacked Sam on the back of the head. **

Multiple people had to cover their mouths to keep from laughing.

** "Ow! What was that for?" Sam yelped as he cupped the back of his head. **

** "Why'd you have to step on my foot?" **

** "Why do you have to talk to the police like that?" **

** Dean looked at Sam and moved to stand in front of him, forcing Sam to stop in his place. "Come on. They don't really know what's going on. We're all alone on this. I mean, if we're going to find Dad we've got to get to the bottom of this thing ourselves." **

** Sam cleared his throat and looked over Dean's shoulder. Said brother turned around to see Sheriff Pierce and two FBI agents. **

** "Can I help you boys?" The sheriff asked. **

** "No, sir, we were just leaving," Dean said. **

** As the FBI agents walked past Dean, he nodded at each of them. "Agent Mulder. Agent Scully." **

"You really can't keep your mouth shut, can you boy?"

"You know me, Bobby gotta say what's on my mind or I'll explode."

"Yes I do. I know that all too well."

John furrowed his eyebrows at that. He hadn't known that at all. When the boys were younger, Sam was the one who was constantly talking. Now that he thought back on it, John couldn't remember Dean talking much when he was younger, only to Sam.

_ What else didn't he know about his boys? _

** The sheriff turned to watch the two boys as they walked past him. **

** Back in town, the marquee on the Highland Movie Theater reads: **

** EMERGENCY TOWN HALL MEETING|SUNDAY 8 PM|BE SAFE OUT THERE **

** A young woman was tacking up posters with the victim's face and the caption "MISSING TROY SQUIRE". Dean and Sam approached. **

** "I'll bet you that's her," Dean noted. **

** "Yeah." **

** The two brothers walked up to the lady. **

** "You must be Amy," Dean started. **

** "Yeah," she confirmed. **

** "Yeah, Troy told us about you. We're his uncles. I'm Dean, this is Sammy," the oldest brother explained. **

** "He never mentioned you to me," Amy said walked away. **

"How the hell do you guys get away with some of the covers you pull?"

"If you're confident enough, you can get away with anything."

** Sam and Dean followed after her. **

** "Well, that's Troy, I guess. We're not around much, we're up in Modesto," Dean agreed. **

** "So, we're looking for him too, and we're kinda asking around." **

** Another lady came up to Amy and put a hand on her arm. "Hey, are you okay?" **

** "Yeah." **

** "You mind if we ask you a couple questions?" Sam asked. **

** Another poster that said MISSING TROY SQUIRE flapped in the breeze. **

** The four of them are sitting in a booth in a diner, Sam and Dean sitting opposite Amy and her friend. **

** "I was on the phone with Troy. He was driving home. He said he would call me right back, and...he never did." **

** "He didn't say anything strange, or out of the ordinary?" Sam suggested. **

** Amy shook her head. "No. Nothing I can remember." **

** "I like your necklace," Sam pointed out. **

"That came out of nowhere."

** Amy held the pendant she was wearing, a pentagram in a circle, and looked down at it. "Troy gave it to me. Mostly to scare my parents—"Amy laughed, "—with all that devil stuff." **

** Sam laughed a little and looked down, then up. Dean looked over at him. **

** "Actually, it means just the opposite. A pentagram is protection against evil. Really powerful. I mean, if you believe in that kind of thing," Sam corrected. **

** "Okay. Thank you, Unsolved Mysteries," Dean added as he took his arm off the back of Sam's seat and leaned forward. "Here's the deal, ladies. The way Troy disappeared, something's not right. So if you've heard anything..." **

** Amy and her friend looked at each other. **

** "What is it?" Dean asked. **

** "Well, it's just... I mean, with all these guys going missing, people talk," the friend remarked. **

** "What do they talk about?" The boys asked at the same time. **

"God, it's always so creepy when you guys do that," Kevin said.

Taking a quick glance at each other, they looked back at Kevin, "do what?"

"GAHH!"

** "It's kind of this local legend. This one girl? She got murdered out on Centennial, like decades ago." **

** Dean looked at Sam, who watched the friend attentively, nodding. **

** "Well, supposedly she's still out there." **

** Sam nodded. **

** "She hitchhikes, and whoever picks her up? Well, they disappear forever." **

** Sam and Dean looked at each other, thinking the same thing. **

"Kinda sounds like a vengeful spirit to me," Bobby observed.

"That's what I was thinking. But what would she be attatched to?" Jody added.

"There's probably like a piece of hair or a speck of blood still on the bridge," Claire replied.

** In the library, a web browser was open to the archive search page for the  _ Jericho Herald _ . The words "Female Murder Hitchhiking" were typed into the search box. Dean clicked GO; the screen saying there was "(0) Result". Dean replaces "Hitchhiking" with "Centennial Highway" and got the same response. Sam was sitting next to him, watching. **

** "Let me try." **

** Dean smacked Sam's hand. "I got it." **

** Sam shoved Dean's chair out of the way and took over. **

** "Dude!" Dean barked as he hit Sam in the shoulder. "You're such a control freak." **

"Dude, have you met yourself? I'm not even allowed to touch the Impala's trunk unless we're on a hunt," Sam called out in disbelief.

"Well, in case you haven't noticed, I'm the only one keeping this place running. I do the laundry, I cook the meals when we have time, I do the dishes," Dean shot back.

"And I'm grateful for that. I'd definitely be dead without you. I'm just saying that you can't get off calling me a control freak."

"Damn, Dean, you sound like a housewife," Claire giggled, Charlie and Kevin beginning to laugh with her when Dean glared back at her. 

"Well, you should see the amount of control I have in the bed," Dean said, throwing in a wink to try and gain back some of his bad-boy reputation.

"Dean Winchester!" Jody and Bobby yelled back at him. He flinched, immediately regretting what he'd said the second it came out of his mouth, but he was too proud to take it back.

Sadly, Cas loved making fun of him when he saw the chance. "What are you talking about, Dean? I seem to remember you being a bottom last I checked."

Sam broke out into a coughing fit while then teens began laughing. Dean's eyes widened as his face burned a bright, bright red. "Dude! What the fuck?!"

"That's not surprising at all, really," Crowley noted. His mother giggled beside him while Dean glared, before looking back at his angel.

Cas just looked at him with what Dean called his "dom eyebrow" (not that he'd ever tell him that). 

"Ok, boys, knock it off. We don't need to know all the kinky shit you guys do in bed," Jody announced, trying to get everyone to stop talking and get back to the show. Bobby sighed, knowing that she just made it worse.

"JODY!!" The brothers yelled out, both incredibly embarrassed. The teens just laughed even harder with Claire falling out of her chair.

"No, no, continue. I'm sure the angel would love to talk about how he-"

"Ok!" Dean cut the witch off. He crossed his arms across his chest and leaned back in his seat, pulling his legs up to his chest to rest on the seat. "I hate all of you."

Cas rested his hand on Dean's knees. "No you don't."

Dean didn't say anything, just glared at him for a second before glancing back at the screen.

** "So angry spirits are born out of violent death, right?" Sam suggested. **

** "Yeah." **

** "Well, maybe it's not murder." **

** Sam replaced "Murder" with "Suicide" and found an article entitled "Suicide on Centennial". Dean glanced at Sam as he opened the article, dated April 25, 1981. **

** "This was 1981. Constance Welch, twenty-four years old, jumps off Sylvania Bridge, drowns in the river," Sam explained **

** There was a picture of Constance; it was the woman who killed Troy. **

** "Does it say why she did it?" **

** "Yeah." **

** "What?" **

** "An hour before they found her, she calls 911. Apparently her two little kids are in the bathtub. She leaves them alone for a minute, and when she comes back, they aren't breathing. Both die." **

At that point, everyone had finally calmed down and was paying attention.

Both Jody and Dean knew what it felt like to lose a child (even if Dean's situations weren't conventional); Dean subconsciously gripped Sam's hand and Jody did the same with Claire.

** Dean raised an eyebrow in disbelief. "Hm." **

** The article had a picture of Joseph, Constance's husband, next to a picture of Sylvania Bridge; it was the place Troy died. **

** "'Our babies were gone, and Constance just couldn't bear it,' said husband Joseph Welch," Sam read from the article. **

** "The bridge look familiar to you?" **

** Sam and Dean walked along the bridge at night, then stopped to lean on the railing and looked down at the river. **

** "So this is where Constance took the swan dive," Dean noted. **

"Tact, Dean, tact."

"What?"

** "So you think Dad would have been here?" Sam asked as he looked over at Dean. **

** "Well, he's chasing the same story and we're chasing him." Dean continued walking and Sam followed. **

** "Okay, so now what?" **

** "Now we keep digging until we find him. Might take a while." **

** Sam stopped, "Dean, I told you, I've gotta get back by Monday—" **

** Dean turned around, "Monday. Right. The interview." **

** "Yeah." **

** "Yeah, I forgot. You're really serious about this, aren't you? You think you're just going to become some lawyer? Marry your girl?" **

** "Maybe. Why not?" **

** "Does Jessica know the truth about you? I mean, does she know about the things you've done?" **

** Sam stepped closer. "No, and she's not ever going to know." **

** "Well, that's healthy. You can pretend all you want, Sammy. But sooner or later you're going to have to face up to who you really are." **

"Sam," Bobby began.

"I know, I know. I loved her and I just wanted to do whatever it took to keep her out of the life. I knew that if I told her, she'd either leave me or she'd want to be a hunter. I couldn't stand the thought."

No one bothered saying anything, knowing he was probably right. He  _ did _ know Jess the best after all.

** Dean turned around and kept walking. Sam began to follow. **

** "And who's that?" **

** "You're one of us." **

"That makes us sound like a cult," Charlie said.

"I mean, we kinda are," Kevin, Sam, Claire, and Dean all said at once.

"Holy shit," Jody whispered to herself.

Mary and John didn't know what to think. They'd both died over a decade ago (Mary over 2 decades), they didn't know how kids think, let alone how to feel over the fact that their 30+ kids get along with them so well.

** Sam hurried to get in front of Dean. "No. I'm not like you. This is not going to be my life." **

** "You have a responsibility to—" **

** "To Dad? And his crusade? If it weren't for pictures I wouldn't even know what Mom looks like. And what difference would it make? Even if we do find the thing that killed her, Mom's gone. And she isn't coming back." **

** Dean grabbed Sam by the collar and shoved him up against the railing of the bridge. "Don't talk about her like that!" **

"I'm sorry, Sam."

Sam scoffed. "Dude, that was  _ literally _ over a decade ago. I don't care anymore."

"Still, I-"

Sam shut him up by planting his hand over his big brother's mouth, quickly pulling it back and wiping it across Dean's jeans after he licked his hand.

"Eww, that's gross, man! C'mon!"

Dean just laughed. Though he quickly stopped when Cas pulled out the 'dom eyebrow'.

Mary lightly smiled at seeing her boys getting along. She may not have known all that they went through, but she could tell that they hadn't had a lot of time to just be themselves. She partially blamed John for that.

Looking over at the said man, Mary could see him still trying to contain himself after the 'control freak' comment and the following conversation. Granted, she was also a tad uncomfortable hearing about her son's sex life, it was still nice to see him being happy. She could tell something had been weighing on him. She had no intention of finding out what it was; she was still thinking about her 4-year-old and 6-month-old waiting for her back in Heaven. She preferred sitting in the back and not saying anything.

** Dean released Sam and walked away. He saw Constance standing at the edge of the bridge. **

** "Sam," Dean called out. **

** Sam came over to stand next to his older brother. Constance was looking over at them, then stepped forward off the edge. Sam and Dean ran to the railing and looked over. **

** "Where'd she go?" **

** "I don't know." **

** Behind them, the Impala's engine started and its headlights came on. Sam and Dean turned to look. **

"C'mon, why her? What did she do?"

** "What the—" **

** "Who's driving your car?" **

** Dean pulled the keys out of his pocket and jingled them. Sam glanced at them. The car jerked into motion, heading straight for them. They turned and ran. **

** "Dean? Go! Go!" **

** The car was moving faster than they were; when it got too close, Sam and Dean dove over the railing. The car came to a halt and shut off. **

"How did you not die?" Kevin asked.

"Because we're awesome," Dean smiled, crossing his arms against his chest and leaning back in his seat. Cas smiled and patted his boyfriend's leg.

"I'm not sure awesome is the right word to describe you two, Squirrel."

** Sam managed to catch the edge of the bridge and was hanging on. He pulled himself up onto the bridge and looked around for his brother. **

** "Dean? Dean!" **

"Dean, tell me you didn't."

Dean just rubbed the back of his neck, then gripped Cas's hand.

** Below, a filthy and annoyed Dean crawled out of the water and onto the mud, panting. "What?" **

** "Hey! Are you all right?" **

** Dean held up one hand in an A-OK sign. "I'm super." **

** Sam let out a relieved laugh and scooted away from the edge. **

"Son, how were you not killed? Jumping off that bridge is literally what killed her, and you got off without a scratch. How?"

Again, Dean rubbed the back of his neck with the hand not clutching Cas's. The angel could feel the hunter's discomfort and tightened his grip.

"Umm, I may or may not have broken a rib or two from that fall."

"WHAT?!" Nearly everyone yelled out.

"Why didn't you tell me?" Sam fumed.

"Well, it was just my ribs, so there wasn't anything you could've done. I wrapped them after my shower, so I was fine."

"You need a new definition of 'fine', ol monons (my heart)."

John may not have understood what the abomination called his son, but he could tell it was a term of endearment.

** Now back on the bridge, Dean shut the hood of his car and leaned back on it. **

** "Your car all right?" **

** "Yeah, whatever she did to it, seems all right now. That Constance chick, what a  _ bitch _ !" **

"No one messes with my Baby, no one!"

"Yeah, of course you'd say that."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"You're a lot like your father in that way." Everyone turned to look at Mary.

"What do you mean?" Dean hesitantly asked. He tried not to look at John

"Well, I remember how protective over the Impala John used to be. If there was so much a scratch on her, he'd do a full-on inspection to make sure nothing else was wrong," Mary told, reminiscing about the times John and her would go out on the open road with the windows down.

"Yeah, that sounds like him," Sam said. He remembered every time John would pop the hood and have Dean help him check the engine before leaving for a hunt.

They both knew that they had different memories of John, but Mary had no idea just  _ how _ different they were.

** "Well, she doesn't want us digging around, that's for sure. So where's the job go from here, genius?" Sam said as he settled on the hood next to Dean.  **

** Dean threw up his arms in frustration, then flicked mud off his hands.  **

** Sam sniffed, then looked at Dean. "You smell like a toilet." **

** Dean looked down at himself in disgust. **

"That must've messed with you so bad, having to get into the car like that," Cas noted.

"Yeah. I think I spent like an hour scrubbing her seats afterward to make sure I got all of it out.

** It's November 2, 2005. **

** In a motel, a VersaBank MasterCard in the name of Hector Aframian lands on a handwritten guest ledger. **

"Oh, was that before you developed your rockstar alias pattern?" Charlie asked. 

"Nah, Dad chose the names. I only started using the rockstar alias when I was alone."

"Classic Squirrel. Becoming a rockstar the second he gets the chance."

"I'm sorry, you have a what?" John seethed. He'd trusted Dean was smart, only to learn that he'd had an easily identifiable pattern all these years.

Dean turned to look back at his parents and realized what he'd said. "Uh, I-uh-"

"It doesn't matter. Sure, it's easily identifiable, but we haven't been caught because of those names before. Let it go," Sam glowered, not wanting to start a fight right now.

Knowing what happened last time they nearly fought, John thought to stay quiet. But he was silently forming a plan on how to save his boys. As long as the angel, demon, and witch were there, everyone was in danger.

** "One room, please." **

** Dean was standing at the motel check-in desk, still covered in muck, with Sam right behind him.  **

** The clerk picked up the card and looked at it. "You guys having a reunion or something?" He asked. **

** "What do you mean?" **

** "I had another guy, Burt Aframian. He came and bought out a room for the whole month." **

** Dean looked back at Sam. **

"So, he  _ planned _ on leaving halfway through and having you two to show up from the beginning," Claire said, forgetting that John was there in the room with them.

"Yes, I did. They needed to be there and I needed to leave enough evidence for the to figure it out," John explained, barely containing his anger. He didn't appreciate bratty teenagers challenging his authority.

Before Sam could say anything, Charlie spoke up, "Yeah, but you couldn't have finished the hunt and found another one to point them toward, or just not started this one at all? It's not like they  _ needed _ the help. Sure, it made them solve the case faster, but still." Charlie then crossed her arms and fell back against her seat, mumbling, "granted they wouldn't have  _ needed _ to go any faster if they'd been there from the beginning.

** The motel door to John's room swung open. Sam was on the other side, having just picked the lock. Sam hid the picks as he stood up. Dean was outside playing lookout, until Sam reached out of the room to grab his shoulder and yanked him inside.  **

"Pffft. It's like you guys got turned into a cartoon," Charlie said as she tried to muffle her laugh.

"God, can you imagine being in Scooby Doo?" Dean imagined a wistful look in his eyes as he thought about Daphne and her perfect red hair.

"I'm sure my father could imagine; I don't see why you have to ask him," Cas said, his eyebrows drawn in confusion. Why would Dean ask his father about Scooby-Doo?

Dean began laughing, like full-on crying through each  _ loud _ exhale of breath.

Multiple people throughout the room began laughing along, only because Dean was laughing.

When everyone calmed down, Rowena rubbed a hand over her chest to get her lungs working again. "My, they weren't kidding when they said laughter was conatgious."

"No, they were not," Dean said, resting a hand on his boyfriend's shoulder. "Don't ever change."

Cas squinted his eyes as he tilted his head. "You've told me that before."

Dean smiled, "I know, and I meant it. I love you just the way you are."

Cas smiled back, clasping Dean's hand in his own. "And I you."

"Blegh, you guys are so cute it's disgusting," Charlie announced, grabbing Sam's arm. "Make them stop."

"At least you don't have to be around them 24/7."

Crowley raised his hand. "I second that. Bloody hell, anytime Squirrel was away from the Angel for more than 20 minutes, he'd start talking about his "ocean blue eyes" and his "sexy ass voice" and it drove me  _ nuts! _ "

Dean's face burned a vibrant red as he pulled his knees up to his chest and sank into his chair.

"Did you really say those things about me?" Cas asked, a small yet smug smile on his face.

"Shut up," Dean mumbled. "Pay attention to the show."

John was also glad that the subject was being changed. They're barely halfway through the first episode and he was doing everything in his power not to kill half the people in the room.

Bobby and Jody spared a glance at each other when they both noticed how tense John was and the glare being thrown toward both Cas and Crowley.

They had a feeling there might be some bloodshed once the episode finished.

** Sam closed the door behind them and the brothers looked around.  **

** "Whoa," Sam said, surprised by the sight of the room. **

** Every wall had papers pinned to it: maps, newspaper clippings, pictures, notes. There were books on the desk and assorted junk on the floor and bed, including something with a hazardous-materials symbol. **

** Dean turned on the lamp by the bed and picked up a half-eaten hamburger sitting on the nightstand. Sam stepped over a line of salt on the floor as Dean sniffed the burger and recoiled. **

** "I don't think he's been here for a couple days at least," Dean determined, setting the burger back down. **

"You could tell that just from the smell?" Claire asked.

"Shut up and watch the show." A minute passed. "Yes."

** Sam fingered the salt on the floor and looked up. **

** "Salt, cats-eye shells...he was worried. Trying to keep something from coming in." **

"What are cats-eye shells used for?" Charlie asked.

"They're usually used for protection," Rowena explained. "People believe that they ward off all forms of magic and make the user invisible."

** Dean looked at the papers covering one wall. **

** "What have you got here?" Sam asked. **

** "Centennial Highway victims," Dean responded and Sam nodded.  **

** The victims seen on the wall included Mark somebody, William Durrell, Scott Nifong who disappeared in 1987 at age 25, and somebody Parks. Mark, Durrell, and Nifong are all white males, judging by the photos. **

** "I don't get it. I mean, different men, different jobs, ages, ethnicities. There's always a connection, right? What do these guys have in common?" **

** While Dean talked, Sam nodded and looked at the papers taped to the other walls. There was something about the Bell Witch, two people being burned alive, a skeletal person blowing a horn at several scared people with the note "MORTIS DANSE", a column about "Devils + Demons", another about "Sirens, Witches, the possessed", a wooden pentacle, and a note that says "Woman in White" above a printout of the  _ Jericho Herald _ article on Constance's suicide. **

** Sam turned on another lamp. "Dad figured it out." **

** Dean turned to look. "What do you mean?" **

** "He found the same article we did. Constance Welch. She's a woman in white." **

** Dean looked at the photos of Constance's victims. "You sly dogs," Dean said as he turned back to Sam. "All right, so if we're dealing with a woman in white, Dad would have found the corpse and destroyed it." **

** "She might have another weakness." **

** "Well, Dad would want to make sure." Dean crossed the room toward Sam. "He'd dig her up. Does it say where she's buried?" **

** "No, not that I can tell. If I were Dad, though, I'd go ask her husband." **

** Sam tapped the picture of Joseph Welch. The caption said he was thirty; the article dated back to 1981, so he must be sixty-four. "If he's still alive." Sam went back to look at something else.  **

** Dean looked at the picture below the  _ Herald _ article, of a woman in a white dress. "All right. Why don't you, uh, see if you can find an address, I'm gonna get cleaned up."  **

** Dean started to walk away, but Sam stopped and turned. "Hey, Dean?" **

** Dean stopped and turned back. **

** "What I said earlier, about Mom and Dad, I'm sorry." **

** Dean held up a hand. "No chick-flick moments." **

"I thought you loved chick-flick moments, ol monons."

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"Uh-huh, 'course not.

** Sam laughed and nodded. "All right. Jerk." **

** "Bitch." **

** Sam laughed again as Dean disappeared, presumably into the bathroom. Sam noticed something, his smile disappearing, and crossed over for a closer look. A rosary hung in front of a large mirror, and stuck into the mirror frame was a photo of John sitting on the hood of the Impala, next to a boy in a baseball cap who is presumably Dean and with a younger boy, presumably Sam, on John's lap. Sam took the photo off the mirror and held it, smiling sadly. **

** Later, Sam paced, holding his phone, and sat down on the bed. A voicemail message was playing. **

** "Hey, it's me, it's about ten-twenty Saturday night—" **

** Dean came out of the bathroom, no longer covered in mud and dirt, and grabbed his jacket. He shrugged it on one shoulder as he crossed the room. **

** "Hey, man. I'm starving, I'm gonna grab a little something to eat in that diner down the street. You want anything?" **

** "No." **

** "Aframian's buying," Dean said, shaking his fake credit card. **

** Sam shook his head. "Mm-mm." **

** Dean left the motel room and he got the jacket the rest of the way on as he crossed the lot. He looked over and saw a police car and the motel clerk was talking to Deputy Jaffe and Deputy Hein. The clerk then turned and pointed at Dean, who turned away and pulled out his cell phone. **

"You just  _ had _ to be snarky to them, didn't you?" Bobby grunted.

Dean just stuck his tongue out, like the mature 39-year-old he is.

** Sam was still sitting on the bed listening to the message. **

** "So come home soon, okay? I love you." **

** The phone beeped. Sam looked at it and pressed a button, then put it back to his ear. **

** "What?" Sam grumbled. **

** Outside, the deputies were approaching Dean. **

** "Dude, five-oh, take off." **

** Sam stood up. "What about you?" **

** "Uh, they kinda spotted me. Go find Dad." **

"Dean, the ever-loving, self-sacrificing idiot that he is," Jody declared.

"You know me!" Dean said, placing his hands under his chin to accentuate his smile.

Sam lightly smacked him in the arm, then turned to look at the Sherrif. "What do you mean?"

She gestured to the elder hunter. "We all know how fast you two are, Dean could've easily gotten out of there just fine. But he purposely got caught to make sure that Sam got out of there in time."

"Yeah, well that's the way he's always been.  _ Take care of Sammy. Watch out for Sammy, boy _ ."

Cas laid his arm across Dean's shoulder and pulled him close as Dean wrung his hands together, letting his head fall low as he laid back against his boyfriend. Looking over the hunter's head, Cas glared at Sam, and he had the modesty to look ashamed.

John moved to stand up, but Mary managed to grab his arm and pull him back down. "There's no point."

_ What did she mean? _

Bobby and Cas shared another look. "Next time."

Cas nodded in agreement, then turned back to the tv.

** Dean hung up the phone as the deputies approached. He turned and grinned at them. **

** "Problem, officers?" **

** "Where's your partner?" **

** "Partner? What, what partner?" **

** Jaffe glanced over his shoulder and jerked his thumb toward the motel room. Hein headed over there and Dean began to fidget. **

** Sam saw Hein approaching and darted away from the window. **

"How did you even get out of there, Sam? There's only one door," Kevin said.

"It's hard to miss a ten-foot moose," Crowley added.

"I don't even remember."

** "So. Fake US Marshal. Fake credit cards. You got anything that's real?" **

** "My boobs," Dean grinned. **

Sam groaned and dropped his head into his hands as Dean giggled, yes,  _ giggled _ , into Cas's shoulder.

Cas smiled at the sound of his adorable hunter and ran his fingers through Dean's hair, causing him to snuggle closer to the angel.

** Hein slammed Dean over the hood of the cop car. **

** "You have the right to remain silent—" **

** The rest of what he was saying was cut off when the camera changed to the Sheriff's office. Sheriff Pierce entered the room, carrying a box. He set the box on the table where Dean was sitting and went around the table to face Dean across it. **

** "So you want to give us your real name?" The sheriff began his interrogation. **

** "I told you, it's Nugent. Ted Nugent." **

** "I'm not sure you realize just how much trouble you're in here." **

** "We talkin', like, misdemeanor kind of trouble or, uh, squeal like a pig trouble?" **

** "You got the faces of ten missing persons taped to your wall." **

** Dean looked away, knowing how bad it looked. **

** "Along with a whole lot of Satanic mumbo-jumbo. Boy, you are officially a suspect." **

** "That makes sense. Because when the first one went missing in '82 I was three," Dean sassed back. **

** "I know you've got partners. One of 'em's an older guy. Maybe he started the whole thing. So tell me. Dean," the Sheriff tossed a brown leather-covered journal on the table, "this his?" **

** Dean stared at it, his eyes wide. The Sheriff sat on the edge of the table. He flipped through the journal: it was filled with newspaper clippings, notes, and pictures, just like what was on the walls of John's motel room. **

** "I thought that might be your name. See, I leafed through this. What little I could make out—I mean, it's nine kinds of crazy." **

** Dean leaned forward for a closer look at the journal he was rarely allowed to see growing up. **

** "But I found this, too." **

** He opened the journal to a page that reads "DEAN 35-111", circled, with nothing else on that page. **

** "Now. You're stayin' right here till you tell me exactly what the hell that means." **

** Dean stares down at the page, then looks up. **

** At the Welch house, Sam, seen through the chain-link covering a grimy glass window, knocked on the door the window was in. An old man opened it: it was Joseph Welch. **

** 'Hi. Are you Joseph Welch?" **

** "Yeah." **

** On the driveway, Sam and Joseph were walking down the junk-filled driveway, Joseph holding the photo Sam found on John's motel room mirror. **

** "Yeah, he was older, but that's him," Joseph told him as he handed the photo back to Sam. **

** "He came by three or four days ago. Said he was a reporter." **

** "That's right. We're working on a story together." **

** "Well, I don't know what the hell kinda story you're working on. The questions he asked me?" **

** "About your wife Constance?" **

** "He asked me where she was buried." **

"Yeah, that's a weird question if you don't understand our job, which most don't."

** "And where is that again?" **

** 'What, I gotta go through this twice?" **

** "It's fact-checking. If you don't mind." **

** "In a plot. Behind my old place over on Breckenridge." **

** "And why did you move? **

** "I'm not gonna live in the house where my children died." **

** Sam stopped walking and Joseph stopped too. **

** "Mr. Welch, did you ever marry again?" **

** "No way. Constance, she was the love of my life. Prettiest woman I ever known." **

** "So you had a happy marriage?" **

Bobby leaned over next to Cas and Dean, "Pinch the boy for me, will ya?"

Dean smiled and nodded, sitting up to pinch his brother in the arm.

"Ow! What was that for?" Sam yelped, holding his arm and glaring at his brother.

Dean just jabbed his thumb Bobby's way.

"Boy, you don't just ask someone if they had a happy marriage, especially if you think it wasn't."

"Sorry, Bobby," Sam mumbled.

** Joseph hesitated. "Definitely." **

** "Well, that should do it. Thanks for your time. **

** Sam turned toward the Impala and Joseph walked away. Sam waited a moment, then turned to look back up at Joseph. **

** "Mr. Welch, did you ever hear of a woman in white?" **

** Joseph turned around. "A what?" **

** "A woman in white. Or sometimes weeping woman?" **

** Joseph just stared. **

** "It's a ghost story. Well, it's more of a phenomenon, really." Sam started back toward Joseph. "Um, they're spirits. They've been sighted for hundreds of years, dozens of places, in Hawaii, Mexico, lately in Arizona, Indiana. All these are different women." Sam stopped in front of the man. "You understand. But all share the same story." **

** "Boy, I don't care much for nonsense." **

** Joseph walked away and Sam followed. **

** "See, when they were alive, their husbands were unfaithful to them." **

** Joseph stopped. **

** "And these women, basically suffering from temporary insanity, murdered their children." **

** Joseph turned around. **

** 'Then once they realized what they had done, they took their own lives. So now their spirits are cursed, walking back roads, waterways. And if they find an unfaithful man, they kill him. And that man is never seen again." **

** "You think...you think that has something to do with...Constance? You smartass!" **

** "You tell me." **

** "I mean, maybe...maybe I made some mistakes. But no matter what I did, Constance, she never would have killed her own children. Now, you get the hell out of here! And you don't come back!" **

** Joseph's face shook, whether from anger or grief it was impossible to tell. After a long moment, he turned away and Sam sighed. **

** Back in the police station, it was night time, and Dean was still in the interrogation room. **

** "I don't know how many times I gotta tell you. It's my high school locker combo," Dean repeated for the hundredth time. **

** Sheriff Pierce was still interrogating Dean over the "DEAN 35-111" page. **

** "We gonna do this all night long?" **

** A Deputy lead into the room. "We just got a 911, shots fired over at Whiteford Road." **

** "You have to go to the bathroom?" The Sheriff asked Dean. **

** "No," he responded. **

** "Good." The Sheriff handcuffed Dean to the table and left. **

** Dean saw a paper clip poking out of the journal and pulled it out, looking at it. Moments later, as the Sheriff and Deputy were gearing up to leave, he was out of the cuffs. Dean watched through the window in the door and ducked out of sight as the Deputy approached the door, waiting for the perfect time to escape. **

** Later that night, Dean climbed down the fire escape, carrying John's journal. **

** On the highway, Sam was driving the Impala when his phone started to ring. He pulled it out and answered it.  **

** Dean was in a phone booth; his phone had been confiscated and he didn't take the time to steal it back. **

** "Fake 911 phone call? Sammy, I don't know, that's pretty illegal." **

"Because anything you boys do is legal," Rowena noted.

"That's fair," Claire said. 

** "You're welcome." Sam grinned. **

** "Listen, we gotta talk," Dean said. **

** "Tell me about it. So the husband  _ was _ unfaithful. We  _ are _ dealing with a woman in white. And she's buried behind her old house, so that should have been Dad's next stop." **

** "Sammy, would you shut up for a second?" **

** "I just can't figure out why Dad hasn't destroyed the corpse yet." **

** "Well, that's what I'm trying to tell you. He's gone. Dad left Jericho." **

** "What? How do you know?" **

** "I've got his journal." **

** "He doesn't go anywhere without that thing." **

** "Yeah, well, he did this time." **

** "What's it say?" **

** "Ah, the same old ex-Marine crap, when he wants to let us know where he's going." **

** "Coordinates. Where to? **

** "I'm not sure yet." **

** "I don't understand. I mean, what could be so important that Dad would just skip out in the middle of a job? Dean, what the hell is going on?" **

** Sam looked up and slammed the brake, dropping the phone: Constance appeared on the road in front of him. The car went right through her as Sam slammed on the brakes. **

** "Sam? Sam!" Dean yelled through the phone. **

** Inside the car, Sam was breathing hard. Constance was sitting in the back seat. **

** "Take me home." A minute passed. "Take me home!" **

** "No." Sam bit out. **

** Constance glared and the doors locked themselves. Sam struggled to reopen them. The gas pedal pressed down and the car began to drive itself. Sam tried to steer, but Constance was doing that too. Sam continued to try to get the door open. In the back seat, Constance flickered for a moment. **

** The car pulled up in front of Constance's house and stopped. The engine shut off and so did the lights. **

** "Don't do this," Sam begged. **

** Constance flickered and when she spoke, her voice was sad. "I can never go home." **

** "You're scared to go home," Sam realized. **

** Sam looked back and Constance wasn't there. He glanced around and looked back and found her in the shotgun seat. She climbed onto his lap, shoving him back against the seat hard enough to recline the seat. Sam struggled as she laid against his chest. **

** "Hold me. I'm so cold." **

** "You can't kill me. I'm not unfaithful. I've never been!" **

"And I never will be."

"You fucking better not, or I'm gonna beat your ass."

"Shut up, Dean. Your knees hurt getting up from a chair; you can't do shit to me."

"BURN!!!" Charlie, Claire, and Kevin all yelled.

Dean gasped in mock hurt as he gripped his chest. "You take that back!"

Sam leaned forward toward his brother. "Make me," he challenged.

"That's it," Dean yelled before tackling his brother to the floor, and once again, they began rolling on the floor.

Cas looked back at Jody and Bobby and noticed small smiles on each of their faces. Then he looked back at Mary and John and was conflicted about what he saw.

Mary had a pensive smile on her face, probably imagining the two boys on the floor as her little ones back in Heaven.

John, on the other hand, was glaring right at Cas and the angel felt the smile slide off his face.

Cas didn't understand what he'd done wrong, but Dean had once explained to him that John had seen things in a black-and-white view; anything and everything that wasn't human was a monster, end of discussion. It was to be expected when he'd never met a friendly monster in person, but it still didn't explain why he wasn't even giving Cas a chance.

Cas didn't have a chance to think about it any longer because Dean had finished "fighting" with Sam and had sat back down, resting his head on Cas's shoulder and his legs in Sam's lap.

** "You will be. Just hold me." Constance kissed Sam as he continued to struggle, reaching for the keys. She pulled back and disappears, a flash of something horrible behind her face as she vanished.  **

** Sam looked around for a moment, then yelled in pain and yanked his hoodie open. There were five new holes burned through the fabric, matching where Constance's fingers had buried into his chest and she flickered in front of him.  **

"Damn, that looks painful. Did that leave scars?" Kevin asked.

Sam nodded his head. "They're really faint, but yeah." Sam unbuttoned the top two buttons of his flannel and pulled the collar down to show five extremely faint circles in the center of his chest. After a few seconds, he released the shirt and buttoned the buttons back up.

** A gunshot went off, shattering the window and startling Constance. Dean approached, still firing at her. She glared at him and vanished, then reappeared, and Dean kept firing until she disappeared again. Sam managed to sit up and start the car. **

** "I'm taking you home," Sam muttered as he began to drive forward. Dean stared after the car as Sam smashed through the side of the house.  **

"You'll be lucky to get out of there alive, and not because of the spirit," Cas mentioned, a small smirk on his face.

Dean just stuck his tongue out at his boyfriend while Sam chuckled beside him.

** Dean hurried through the wreckage to the passenger side of the car. "Sam! Sam! You okay?" Dean called out. **

** "I think..." **

** "Can you move?" **

** "Yeah. Help me?" **

** Dean leaned through the window to give Sam a hand. **

** Constance picked up a large framed photograph seen when she brought Troy there: the woman in the photo was Constance and the children were presumably hers. **

** Dean helped Sam out of the car. "There you go," Dean mumbled as he closed the car door.  **

** They looked around and saw Constance and she looked up. She glared at them and threw the picture down. A bureau scooted toward Sam and Dean, pinning them against the car. The lights flickered as Constance looked around, scared. Water began to pour down the staircase and she went over. At the top were the boy and girl from the photograph. They held hands and spoke in chorus, "You've come home to us, Mommy."  **

"That's creepy," Claire whispered to Jody, who nodded in agreement.

** Constance looked at them, distraught. Suddenly they were behind her; they embraced her tightly and she screamed, her image flickering. In a surge of energy, still screaming, Constance and the two children melted into a puddle on the floor. Sam and Dean shoved the bureau over and went to look at the spot where Constance and her children vanished. **

** "So this is where she drowned her kids," Dean noted. **

** Sam nodded. "That's why she could never go home. She was too scared to face them." **

** "You found her weak spot. Nice work, Sammy." He slapped his brother on the chest where he'd been injured and walked away.  **

** Sam laughed through the pain. "Yeah, I wish I could say the same for you. What were you thinking shooting Casper in the face, you freak?" **

"I was trying to buy you time, jackass."

"Yeah, yeah."

** "Hey. Saved your ass." Dean leaned over to look at the car. "I'll tell you another thing. If you screwed up my car?" Dean twisted around to look at Sam. "I'll kill you." **

** Sam laughed. **

** On the highway later that night, the Impala tore down the road; the right headlight was out. **

** Sam had the journal open to "DEAN 35-111" and a map open on his lap and was finding coordinates with a ruler, a flashlight tucked between chin and shoulder. **

"You couldn't have stopped a dinner and found the location before hand?" Bobby asked.

Dean shook his head, not taking his eyes off the screen. "No, we had to get out of there as fast as we could."

Everyone glared at John, knowing that there was absolutely no reason to speed out of there except John's brainwashing.

** "Okay, here's where Dad went. It's called Blackwater Ridge, Colorado." **

** Dean nodded. "Sounds charming. How far?" **

** "About six hundred miles." **

** "Hey, if we shag ass we could make it by morning." **

** Sam looked at him, hesitating. "Dean, I, um..." **

** Dean glanced at the road and back. "You're not going." **

"It's not like it was a surprise. He  _ did _ tell you beforehand, dearie," Rowena said.

"I know that, I just kinda forgot. It was nice to be with him again, just doing a pretty easy hunt."

** "The interview's in like, ten hours. I gotta be there," Sam said. **

** Dean nodded, disappointed, and returned his attention to the road. "Yeah. Yeah, whatever." Dean glanced at Sam. "I'll take you home." **

** Sam turned the flashlight off and they drove on. **

** They pulled up in front of the apartment hours later, Dean still frowning. Sam got out and leaned over to look through the window. "Call me if you find him?" **

** Dean nodded. **

** "And maybe I can meet up with you later, huh?" **

** "Yeah, all right." **

** Sam patted the car door twice and turned away.  **

"Would you have called me if you found him?" Sam asked.

Dean shook his head. "Probably not."

"Why not, darling?" Rowena asked.

Dean shrugged against Cas's shoulder. "We weren't close at the time. To be honest, it was a spur of the moment thing when I went to get him. I didn't even plan on calling him ever again after I dropped him off. I was mad I even went to get him because I didn't want to risk him getting back into the life."

"Well, I'm glad you came and got me. I don't even wanna know what would have happened to you if you'd been alone," Sam responded.

Cas, who had clearly started thinking about it, started rubbing circles into Dean's back before placing a kiss in his hair, tightening his grip on the hunter. Thought and images flashed through his head of what could've happened had Dean not gotten Sam from Stanford. 

"Well, you would've been dragged in anyway, right?" Charlie asked and Sam nodded.

"Wait, what do you mean you would've been dragged in anyway?" Mary questioned, upset about the fact that her youngest would've never been able to escape the life.

"You'll probably learn about it later."

** Dean leaned toward the passenger door, one arm going over the back of the seat. "Sam?" He called out. **

** Sam turned back. **

** "You know, we made a hell of a team back there." **

** "Yeah." **

** Dean drove off.  **

** Sam watched him go and sighed. He let himself into the apartment. Everything was dark and quiet. "Jess?" He called out as he closed the door. "You home?" **

** Sam noticed a plate of chocolate chip cookies on the table, with a note that read "Missed you! Love you!", next to a  _ National Geographic _ . He picked one up and ate it as he snuck into the bedroom, smiling. The shower was audibly running. Sam sat on the bed, shuts his eyes, and flopped onto his back. **

Sam closed his eyes, knowing what was about to happen and not being able to witness it again. He hadn't realized he'd also tensed up until he felt arms wrap around his body. He sighed and buried his face into the crook of his brother's neck. He smiled when he felt a kiss on the top of his skull.

Mary was the only one in the room who didn't know what was going on, but judging from the morose looks spread across the room and the way Dean was holding his brother in his arms, she knew better than to ask. Even John looked upset.

** Blood dripped onto Sam's forehead, one drop, then another; he flinched and opened his eyes. He gasped in horror: Jess was pinned to the ceiling, staring down at him and bleeding from the stomach. **

** "No!" He cried out. **

** Jess burst into flame; the fire spread across the ceiling. **

** Dean kicked the front door open. **

"How did you know when to come back?" Jody asked.

"Because his Moose senses were tingling," Crowley drawled.

After glaring at Crowley for a few seconds, Dean turned to Jody. "I actually turned around and drove back the minute I thought he went in. I wanted to make sure he was ok before I never saw him again." 

Sam opened his eyes and looked up at his older brother, making sure not to glance at the screen. "Did you really? You never told me."

Dean nodded and smiled. It was a special smile, one reserved for Cas and Sam. "I did."

Sam smiled back before closing his eyes and burying his face back into Dean's chest.

** "Sam!" **

** Sam raised one arm to shield his face. "Jess!" **

** Dean came running into the bedroom. "Sam! Sam!" He looked up and saw Jess. **

** "No! No!" **

** Dean grabbed Sam off the bed and bodily shoved him out the door, Sam struggling the entire way. **

** "Jess! Jess! No!" Sam wailed out one last time as flames engulfed the apartment. **

** Almost exactly like  _ that _ night, a fire truck was parked outside the building, firemen and police keeping back gawkers. Dean looked on, then turned and walked back to his car. Sam was standing behind the open trunk, loading a shotgun. Dean looked at the trunk, then at Sam, whose face was set in a mask of desperate anger. Sam looked up, then sighed, nodded, and tossed the shotgun into the trunk. **

** "We got work to do," Sam declared as he shut the trunk. **

Now that the episode was over, the screen went black once again before more words appeared.

"There will be a twenty-minute break before the next episode, and like last time, a twenty-minute timer appeared on the screen; It started to count down.

Everyone got up and started walking around to stretch some muscles, then they began to form groups to talk before the next episode.

While Charlie, Sam, Kevin, and Bobby were talking about the Hunter SAT they mentioned earlier, Cas and Dean were still sitting on the couch cuddling.

Though their moment was ruined when John decided to step in front of the couple. "Can I speak to you for a minute?" John directed toward the Angel.

However, before the Angel could say anything, Dean spoke up. "No, whatever you have to say, you can say it in front of me as well." 

John glared, then nodded his head, drawing his lips into a thin line. "Fine. I know what you're doing, and you won't get away with it."

Castiel furrowed his eyebrows and threw a glance Dean's way before looking back at the eldest Hunter. "I don't know what you mean. What is it that I'm doing?"

Instead of answering, John just grabbed the lappels of Cas's jacket and picked him up, spinning him around and slamming him against the nearest wall. Which got everyone's attention.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" Dean called out, trying to pry his  _ father _ off his boyfriend. 

Cas was stock still, a calculating look in his eyes as he stared at the eldest Winchester. He didn't understand what John thought he was doing, but he had a feeling he was about to find out.

"I know that you and the witch and the demon are brainwashing my sons and everyone else in this room, and I won't have it."

"What the fuck, John?!" Sam yelled.  _ Where the fuck did he get  _ that  _ idea _ ?

"I don't know where or how you came to that conclusion, but you've misjudged me. I've done no such thing," the Angel calmly explained, trying to diffuse the situation.

John, however, didn't like that answer and slammed Cas back against the wall once more, knocking the wind out of him.

Sam and Bobby ran forward to try and pull him off while Dean fell back against the couch. His chest began to tighten as his breathing slowed. He couldn't get air into his lungs and his vision began to blur and darken on the edges. He heard yelling but he couldn't tell what was being said. He felt hands on his back and arms and he tried to shrug them off, but they held on tight. After a minute, a hand on his back began rubbing in a circular motion. It was one he was familiar with and it calmed him down. 

When he finally calmed down and his vision returned to normal, he looked over to find Charlie sitting on the couch beside him. Everyone was looking at him with varying looks of pity and sadness. Not wanting to look at those looks anymore, he turned his attention to his boyfriend. 

Cas was still being held against the wall, though Dean realized that John wasn't focused on him anymore. He was focused on glaring at Dean. Probably calling him a failure (among other names) in his head.

With one look, Cas understood what Dean wanted him to do. He turned back to John, who was still focused on Dean, and shoved his hands off him. Rowena seemed to catch on and as soon as Cas was far enough away, with a flick of her wrist, John was pinned to the wall in Cas's stead. 

He began to struggle, "Hey, what the hell? Let me go!" He roared.

Bobby stalked up to John and promptly slapped him across the face.

"I get that you were heartbroken over Mary's death and you went into the life. Back then, yes, most hunters had a black-and-white view of things. But that didn't give you the right to abuse your  _ children _ . And that  _ certainly _ doesn't give you the right to push your black-and-white views on to them. Just because some of the people here aren't human, that doesn't mean they're evil."

At that last sentence, Crowley and Rowena took a glance at each other but decided not to say anything.

"I know first hand that everyone in this room had a part in saving the world at least once, maybe twice. And sure, maybe they weren't exactly on our side when we first met, but they've changed. They've redeemed themselves. And you'd do best to remember that." Bobby jabbed John in the sternum for effect. 

John glared at Bobby before turning his gaze toward his wife, hoping she'd stick up for him. Instead, she averted her gaze to the floor. He couldn't believe it. He went to speak but found that no noise came from his throat. 

Rowena gave a small smirk. "Just a little silencing charm. Should hold for a while." 

Everyone was very satisfied with John's justice and they moved to sit down, Rowena releasing him from the wall. Most of them smiled when they noticed Dean asleep on Cas's shoulder, exhausted from his panic attack earlier. 

John, incredibly perturbed he'd been bested, plopped down in his seat, his wife not making eye contact with him.

Sam took a picture of his brother sleeping on his angel before Cas shook Dean's shoulder, gently waking him up.

Dean slowly opened his eyes and looked around, but he didn't move, instead, wrapping his arms around the angel's waist and snuggling closer. Cas rolled his eyes and wrapped an arm around his hunter's shoulders, pulling him close. 

The countdown still had about 5 minutes left, but it suddenly sped up until it reached 0. The screen went black for a minute before words appeared. 

"Instead of watching your cases in order, we're watching the saddest and most important cases." 

Dean buried his head into Cas's shoulder and tightened his grip. There were plenty of things that he wanted to keep to himself, and he had a feeling that those were all going to appear in these episodes.

"However, there will be some fun episodes to lighten the mood everyone once in a while. So sit back, relax, and enjoy the show."

The screen went black once more for a moment before the next episode began to play.


	3. (S1 : E3) Dead in the Water

** 3 (S1:E3) **

** In Lake Manitoc, Wisconsin, a man sat on the kitchen counter eating cereal, another man at the table reading the newspaper. A woman walked into the room. **

** She kissed her father on the cheek. "Morning, Daddy." **

** "Morning, sweetheart," he called back. **

Dean remembered that case. It was weird to see how victims lived before they died, seeing how close parents were to their children. It was odd.

When Cas could see how much his hunter was thinking so early on, he started rubbing up and down Dean's arm, which he greatly appreciated.

** The lady went to get something out of the refrigerator. **

** "All these workouts, Soph, I don't know. Guys don't like buff girls," her brother called out. **

"Hey, I resent that," Jody called out.

** "Yeah, well, girls don't like guys who still live at home," Sophie said. **

** Sophie's brother drained the milk from his cereal bowl and slid off the counter. "Ha ha ha." **

** "Ha ha," mocked as she opened the door to leave. **

** "Be careful," her father called. **

** "I will," Sophie answered as she closed the door. **

** Sophie stood on the dock, looking at the lake. Her brother watched from a distance as she dove in. She swam and came up for air, looking around; she saw no one. She kept swimming, then came up for air again and looked around some more; still no one. Someone approached her from underwater and pulled her under. Bubbles, then nothing. **

"Welp, I guess I'm never going swimming again." 

"Dean, when was the last time you even went swimming?" Sam asked his brother.

When he was having trouble remembering, Cas answered for him, "nearly a year ago. Remember when I managed to tear you away for a while and we stayed at that one hotel with the pool? It was nearly a week after you got the mark."

After a moment, it clicked. "Oh, yeah! You surprised me with breakfast in bed. Wasn't that our anniversary?"

Cas nodded, a tender smile on his face.

Dean responded with a smile of his own. However, it quickly fell when he saw John's glare.

Cas seemed to notice and moved into his line of sight, blocking Dean's view of John. He leaned down next to his boyfriend's ear, "Ignore him. He can't hurt you anymore. He'll never touch you or your brother ever again."

Dean smiled and leaned up to press his lips against Cas's. "I love you."

"I love you, too."

** A truck blew past a neon sign that read hotel behind a building that says The Lynnwood Inn. The Impala was parked out front. **

** In the restaurant, there was a mostly empty plate in front of Dean, who was circling obituaries in a newspaper. Dean circled an obituary that read: CARLTON, SOPHIE -The Carlton family is sad to announce the death of their beloved daughter in a tragic swimming accident. Sophie Carlton, 18, was having her [...] Lake Manitoc WI, an [...] suddenly [...] **

** An attractive waitress, whose nametag said Wendy, approached. "Can I get you anything else?" She asked. **

** Dean looked up and grinned around the pen he was chewing on. **

"Is it weird that I find that hot?" Cas asked as Dean began laughing.

"Eww, that's gross. I don't need to know what kinks you have that involve my brother."

Dean began cackling, leaning heavily on his boyfriend.

Charlie eventually joined in, followed by Claire and Kevin. Rowena just chuckled.

Eventually, everyone calmed down and Dean looked at his brother. "You should hear what else he finds hot."

Before anyone could react, Bobby leaned around Cas and smacked his surrogate son 'round the head. "No one needs to hear that, Idjit. Just shut up and watch the show."

Dean just pouted and settled back against Cas once more.

** Sam came over and sat down. "Just the check, please." **

** "Okay," Wendy said as she walked away.  **

** Dean dropped his head, then looked at Sam. "You know, Sam, we are allowed to have fun once in a while." Dean pointed to Wendy walking away; she was wearing short shorts. "That's fun." **

** Sam just looked at him and Dean handed Sam the newspaper. "Here, take a look at this, I think I got one. Lake Manitoc, Wisconsin. Last week Sophie Carlton, eighteen, walks into the lake, doesn't walk out. Authorities dragged the water; nothing. Sophie Carlton is the third Lake Manitoc drowning this year. None of the other bodies were found either. They had a funeral two days ago." **

** "A funeral?" **

** "Yeah, it's weird, they buried an empty coffin. For, uh, closure or whatever." **

** "Closure? What closure? People don't just disappear, Dean. Other people just stop looking for them." **

** "Something you want to say to me?" **

** "The trail for Dad. It's getting colder every day." **

** "Exactly. So what are we supposed to do?" **

** "I don't know. Something. Anything." **

** "You know what? I'm sick of this attitude. You don't think I wanna find Dad as much as you do?" **

** "Yeah, I know you do, it's just—" **

** "I'm the one that's been with him every single day for the past two years, while you've been off to college going to pep rallies. We will find Dad, but until then, we're gonna kill everything bad between here and there. Okay?" **

"You're sick of his attitude? My god, Dean, you sound just like a parent," Jody said.

Dean shrugged his shoulders. "I mean, I  _ did _ raise him. He's my son."

Sam snorted. "Yeah, one of three."

Dean smacked his brother in the arm and rolled his eyes.

"I'm sorry, you have  _ how _ many kids?" Jody questioned, her eyes wide as she looked around and saw everyone else in the room just as confused as her.

Dean rubbed the back of his neck as he nervously chuckled. "Well, I wasn't really their dad."

"You were, just like you were mine," Sam said.

Dean rolled his eyes once more but said nothing.

John's eyes narrowed at his eldest son. He was learning more and more about him, and he didn't like who he'd become.

** Sam rolled his eyes. Wendy walked by, distracting Dean. **

** "All right, Lake Manitoc. Hey!" **

** Dean returned his attention to Sam. "Huh?" **

** "How far?" **

** On the road, Impala passed a clothesline with white sheets. Later, the Impala crossed a bridge and passed someone fishing off said bridge. The Impala drove past a sign that read "Welcome to Lake Manitoc WI." The Impala pulled up in front of a house and the engine stopped. **

** Dean knocked on the door and the brother from earlier opened it. **

** "Will Carlton?" He asked. **

** "Yeah, that's right," the man responded. **

** "I'm Agent Ford. This is Agent Hamill. We're with the US Wildlife Service," Dean introduced as he held up an ID. **

"Ford and Hamil, really? Star Wars fans much?" Bobby asked, a smirk on his face.

** Will's father was sitting on a bench on the dock. Will brought Sam and Dean around to see him.  **

** "She was about a hundred yards out," he said. "That's where she got dragged down." **

** "And you're sure she didn't just drown?" Dean asked. **

** "Yeah. She was a varsity swimmer. She practically grew up in that lake. She was as safe out there as in her own bathtub." **

** "So no splashing? No signs of distress?" **

** "No, that's what I'm telling you." **

** "Did you see any shadows in the water? Maybe some dark shape breach the surface?" **

** "No. Again, she was really far out there." **

** "You ever see any strange tracks by the shoreline?" Dean asked. **

** "No, never. Why? Why, what do you think's out there?" **

** "We'll let you know as soon as we do," Dean said as he headed back to the car. **

"Why the hell did you walk away without questioning the father?" John demanded. 

"Probably because he knew he wouldn't talk," Crowley stated.

"What?"

"The poor boy is practically an expert in trauma, and that was way before everything happened," Rowena explained.

John glared at the demon and his witch mother. 

** "What about your father?" Sam asked. **

** Dean stopped and turned back. **

Both mother and on sent a pointed look John's way.

** "Can we talk to him?" **

** Will turned to look at his father, then turned back. "Look, if you don't mind, I mean...he didn't see anything and he's kind of been through a lot." **

** "We understand," Sam said as he followed his brother to the car. **

** At the police station, Sheriff Jake Devins was talking to Sam and Dean. **

** "Now, I'm sorry, but why does the Wildlife Service care about an accidental drowning?" **

** "You sure it's accidental? Will Carlton saw something grab his sister," Sam told him. **

** "Like what?" **

** They walked into Jake's office. He motioned to chairs in front of his desk. **

** "Here, sit, please. There are no indigenous carnivores in that lake." **

** Sam and Dean sat as the Sheriff began to talk. **

** "There's nothing even big enough to pull down a person, unless it was the Loch Ness Monster." **

** "Yeah," Dean laughed. "Right." **

** Sam glanced at Dean. **

** "Will Carlton was traumatized, and sometimes the mind plays tricks. Still—" Jake began as he sat down. "We dragged that entire lake. We even ran a sonar sweep, just to be sure, and there was nothing down there." **

"Yeah, well ghosts don't show up on those things, anyway," Bobby said.

** "That's weird, though, I mean, that's, that's the third missing body this year," Dean asserted. **

** "I know. These are people from my town. These are people I care about." **

** "I know." **

** "Anyway..." Jake sighed. "All this...it won't be a problem much longer." **

** "What do you mean?" Dean asked. **

** "Well, the dam, of course." **

** "Of course, the dam. It's, uh, it sprung a leak." **

** "It's falling apart, and the feds won't give us the grant to repair it, so they've opened the spillway. In another six months, there won't be much of a lake. There won't be much of a town, either. But as Federal Wildlife, you already knew that." **

** "Exactly." **

** A young woman tapped on the door. "Sorry, am I interrupting?" **

** Sam and Dean stood up. **

** "I can come back later." **

** "Gentlemen, this is my daughter." **

"Dean, I swear to God if you flirt with her," Jody vaguely threatened.

Dean's eyes widened in surprise, opening and closing his mouth like a fish while trying to find an excuse, ultimately failing and admitting defeat by dropping his head on Cas's shoulder.

"God dammit," the Sheriff muttered. Claire and Rowena chuckled beside her.

** "It's a pleasure to meet you. I'm Dean." Dean introduced himself as he shook her hand. **

** "Andrea Barr. Hi." **

** "Hi." **

** "They're from the Wildlife Service. About the lake." **

** "Oh." **

** A little boy walked in around Andrea. **

** "Oh, hey there. What's your name?" Dean asked. **

Charlie gasped, "Oh,  _ please _ tell me we get to see you with a little kid!"

Dean kind of blushed and buried his face in the crook of his boyfriend's shoulder.

Sam smiled. "It was adorable and you'll probably see it. I'm not surprised that he got so attached to you three," Sam noted, pointing between Charlie, Claire, and Kevin. "Dean has a tendency for picking up strays, if you know what I mean."

Dean glared at his brother while everyone laughed.

Sam gave him a look. "Am I  _ wrong _ , through?"

Once again, Dean had nothing to say. 

** The boy walked away without speaking and Andrea followed. **

** "His name is Lucas." **

** Lucas and Andrea were in the main room. Andrea gave him some crayons out of a box. **

** "Is he okay?" Sam queried **

** "My grandson's been through a lot. We all have," Jake told as he stood and went to the office door. "Well, if there's anything else I can do for you, please let me know." **

** Dean, Sam, and Jake left the office. **

** "Thanks. You know, now that you mentioned it, could you point us in the direction of a reasonably priced motel?" Dean asked Andrea. **

** "Lakefront Motel. Go around the corner. It's about two blocks south," she replied. **

** "Two—would you mind showing us?" **

Jody facepalmed and Dean chuckled.

"Do you flirt with everything that walks?" Claire asked the elder hunter.

Crowley leaned forward in his seat. "Trust me, he does."

Dean began to blush.

"He did," Rowena corrected. "That was  _ before _ he met the pretty boy angel. Now he just constantly fucks  _ him _ ."

Dean was no longer the only one blushing.

Charlie gasped. "Eww! I don't need to hear about what my brothers do in their spare time."

John's head snapped up and he looked at Dean. "What her  _ brothers _ are doing?"

Dean couldn't describe his face and it worried him. "Umm, Charlie is practically our sister, so she calls us her brothers."

John began to glare, not being able to contain his rage.

Bobby sighed. "She means Dean and Cas, you dipshit."

John went to argue, but Mary raised a hand, effectively silencing the dispute before it even started. He seethed; how could his wife go along with what their son was doing? It was wrong! Not only did it look like a man, but it was a fucking  _ monster _ for God's sake!

** Andrea laughed. "You want me to walk you two blocks?" **

** "Not if it's any trouble." **

** "I'm headed that way anyway." Andrea turned to Jake. "I'll be back to pick up Lucas at three." Then she turned to Lucas. "We'll go to the park, okay, sweetie?" Andrea gently kissed Lucas on top of his head. **

** Dean waved as they left and Jake nodded. **

** "Thanks again." **

** Andrea led Dean and Sam along the street. **

** "So, cute kid," Dean started, trying to break the silence. **

** "Thanks," Andrea said as they cross a street. **

** "Kids are the best, huh?" **

At that, the three "teens" began to bang their heads on their chairs.

** Andrea glanced at him with a questioning look and ignored him. They kept walking. The group stopped in front of a building that read Lakefront Motel. **

** "There it is. Like I said, two blocks," Andrea declared. **

** "Thanks," Sam said. **

** Andrea then turned to Dean. "Must be hard, with your sense of direction, never being able to find your way to a decent pickup line." **

Everyone in the room began to laugh and Dean ended up slugging his brother in the arm.

"Ow! Why me?! I'm not the only one laughing."

"Yeah, but you're the closest to me"

** Andrea began walking away, calling back over her shoulder. "Enjoy your stay!" **

** When she was out of earshot, Sam turned to his older brother. "'Kids are the best'? You don't even like kids." **

** "I love kids." **

** "Name three children that you even know." **

** As Dean tried to think, Sam waved a hand and walked into the motel. Dean scratched his head and followed his brother into the motel. "I'm thinking!" **

"Claire, Kevin, Alex," Dean listed.

"Children, Dean. They're all teens," Cas said.

"Fine. Umm, Ben, Emma, and Lucas."

** In their room, Sam was working on his laptop and Dean was going through his clothes. **

** "So there's the three drowning victims this year," Sam noted. **

** "Any before that?" **

** "Uh, yeah." **

** Sam had a browser window open to The Lake Manitoc Tribune. DROWNING TAINTS ICE FISHING FESTIVAL. He clicked, and another browser window came up, again the Tribune: 12-YEAR-OLD GIRL DROWNS IN LAKE, Second drowning in 6 months at Lake Manitoc **

** "Six more spread out over the past thirty-five years. Those bodies were never recovered either. If there is something out there, it's picking up its pace." **

** Dean tossed one of his shirts on the bed. "So, what, we got a lake monster on a binge?" **

** "This whole lake monster theory, it, it just bugs me." **

** Dean came over to read over Sam's shoulder. "Why?" **

** "Loch Ness, uh, Lake Champlain, there are literally hundreds of eyewitness accounts, but here, almost nothing." Sam continued to look at the Tribune homepage. "Whatever it is out there, no one's living to talk about it." Sam scrolled to the comments section of an article.  **

** Dean pointed at a certain part of the article. "Wait, Barr, Christopher Barr. Where have I heard that name before?" **

** Sam read from the page. "Christopher Barr, the victim in May." Sam clicked a link, opening a new page. LOCAL MAN IN TRAGIC ACCIDENT. The picture loaded and Sam's face fell as it showed a police officer with Lucas. **

** "Oh. Christopher Barr was Andrea's husband, Lucas's father. Apparently, he took Lucas out swimming. Lucas was on a floating wooden platform when Chris drowned. Two hours before the kid got rescued." Sam clicked the picture for a better look, then scratched his head. "Maybe we have an eyewitness after all." **

** "No wonder that kid was so freaked out. Watching one of your parents die isn't something you just get over." **

Sam placed a hand on his brother's shoulder and Cas instinctively began rubbing Dean's arm. Whenever there was a case that involved a kid, especially ones who lost parents, he got super attached. Dean had a big heart, and it often left him feeling hurt in the end. 

Dean decided to change his position and instead of resting on Cas's shoulder, moved so he was laying in his boyfriend's lap while his feet rested in his brother's. 

Cas began to run his fingers through Dean's hair and he felt the hunter's muscles relax.

** Later at the park, kids were laughing and playing. Andrea was sitting on a bench and watching Lucas, who was at another bench coloring and playing with toy soldiers. **

** "Can we join you?" Sam asked. **

** Andrea looked up to find Sam and Dean standing there. **

** "I'm here with my son." **

** Dean looked over at Lucas. "Oh. Mind if I say hi?" Dean asked as he began walking over to Lucas. **

** "Tell your friend this whole Jerry Maguire thing is not gonna work on me," Andrea emitted. **

"Jerry Maguire?" Claire questioned. "Who's that?"

"No clue," Dean said.

"It's a romance/sports movie staring Tom Cruise," Sam answered, never taking his eyes off the screen.

Dean turned to look at him with a look and when Sam looked back at him, he realized how quickly he'd answered that. "What? Jess made me watch it."

"Mmhm," Dean hummed, clearly not convinced.

** Sam moved to sit next to her. "I don't think that's what this is about." **

** Dean approached the boy. "How's it going?" He kneeled down next to the bench where Lucas was coloring; when Lucas didn't even look up, Dean picked up one of the toy soldiers. "Oh, I used to love these things."  **

"Yeah, they're stuck in the ashtray, now," John muttered.

** Dean imitated guns and explosions, then tossed the toy soldier down. "So crayons is more your thing? That's cool. Chicks dig artists." **

** Lucas had a pile of drawing on the bench and Dean took a look. The top one was of a big black swirl; the second one was of a red bicycle. **

** "Hey, these are pretty good. You mind if I sit and draw with you for a while?" Dean picked up a crayon. "I'm not so bad myself." Dean sat on the bench, picked up a pad of paper, and started drawing. "You know, I'm thinking you can hear me, you just don't want to talk. I don't know exactly what happened to your dad, but I know it was something real bad. I think I know how you feel. When I was your age, I saw something." Dean paused, trying to find the right word while also swallowing the lump slowly forming in his throat.  **

People were silent for a minute. "Dearie, were you mute as a child?"

Dean looked up at Cas for a minute, then slowly sat up and turned around to look at everyone who didn't. He formed a fist with his right hand and shook it up and down. " _ Yes _ ."

Those who didn't know ASL looked at each other.

"He said yes," Crowley explained. Most Supernatural creatures (including Rowena, Crowley, and even Cas) knew ASL.

Rowena nodded her head once. She then pointed to Dean, pressed her thumb against her chin and spreading out her fingers, then put both hands out, one facing up and the other facing down, then flipping them over at the same time. " _ Your mother's death? _ "

Again, Dean signed, " _ yes _ ".

Cas, Crowley, Sam, and Bobby, the only other ones in the room who understood ASL, looked at each other.

Dean looked at all the confused looks on everyone's faces and rubbed a closed fist on his chest in a circle. " _ Sorry. _ "

Cas got up on his knees on the couch and leaned toward Dean, laying a hand on each shoulder. "Hey," the angel whispered before placing a small kiss on the underside of his jaw. He smiled when he felt Dean's muscles relax under his lips. He slowly turned Dean back around and pulled him back down to his seat. He formed his hand in an 'o' shape, then stuck his middle finger out and his index finger up as he set his thumb between them; " _ It's ok. _ " 

Dean took a breath and nodded as Cas took his hand in his own.

** "Anyway. Well, maybe you don't think anyone will listen to you, or, uh...or believe you. I want you to know that I will. You don't even have to say anything. You could draw me a picture about what you saw that day, with your dad, on the lake. Okay, no problem. This is for you." Dean held out the picture he drew to Lucas. It was stick figures. **

** "This is my family." Dean pointed at each person in turn. "That's my dad. That's my mom. That's my geek brother, and that's me." There was a pause. "All right, so I'm a sucky artist. I'll see you around, Lucas." **

** Dean headed back to Sam and Andrea and Lucas picked up the picture. **

** "Lucas hasn't said a word, not even to me. Not since his dad's accident," Andrea explained. **

** "Yeah, we heard. Sorry," Dean said. **

** Andrea nodded. **

** "What are the doctors saying?" Sam asked. **

** "That it's a kind of post-traumatic stress." **

** "That can't be easy. For either of you." **

** "We moved in with my dad. He helps out a lot. It's just...when I think about what Lucas went through, what he saw..." A pause. **

** "Kids are strong. You'd be surprised what they can deal with," Dean assured. **

Sam patted Dean's shoulder, then made a fist and stuck his thumb straight out, pressing the tip low on his chest, quickly dragging it up. " _ I'm proud of you. _ "

Dean smiled at his baby brother.

** Lucas got up from the bench, heading for the group. **

** "You know, he used to have such life. He was hard to keep up with, to tell you the truth. Now he just sits there. Drawing those pictures, playing with those army men. I just wish—" **

** Lucas walked up, carrying one of his drawings. **

** "Hey, sweetie," Andrea greeted. **

** Lucas slightly turned to Dean and handed him the picture. **

** "Thanks. Thanks, Lucas." **

"Damn, I've never seen a trauma victim open up to someone so fast, let alone a stranger," Jody said in disbelief.

"You should've seen him as a child," Bobby added. "He was the only one Sam would let hold him for a long time and he got along with every kid he met until he hit highschool."

"What happened in highschool?" Kevin asked.

"Dean had a reputation to create and protect," Charlie chimed in.

Dean stuck his tongue out and she did the same. 

** It was a picture of the Carlton house. **

** Lucas then headed back to the bench. **

** At the Carlton house, the father was sitting in a chair, not moving. His son, Will, approached him. "Hey, Dad? You, you should probably eat something. I'm gonna make some dinner, okay?" **

** He said nothing and turned his head away. **

** In the kitchen, Will was washing a fish at the sink. He didn't turn the water off when he began cutting up the fish and the water turned brown. Will noticed and shuts off the water. Black water then began to creep up through the drain and fill the sink. Will rolled up his sleeve to pull the plug out of the drain. He came up with the plug, but the water didn't drain. He stuck his arm back in the water, and something grabbed it, pulling him into the sink. He drowned and the water drained. **

"What the fuck was that?" Claire asked.

** At the boys' motel, Dean was sitting on a bed. Sam opened the door and walked in. **

** "So, I think it's safe to say we can rule out Nessie." **

** "What do you mean?" **

** Sam sat next to Dean. "I just drove past the Carlton house. There was an ambulance there. Will Carlton is dead." **

** "He drowned?" **

** "Yep. In the sink." **

** "What the hell? So you're right, this isn't a creature. We're dealing with something else." **

** "Yeah, but what?" **

** "I don't know. Water wraith, maybe? Some kind of demon? I mean, something that controls water...water that comes from the same source." **

** "The lake." **

** "Yeah." **

** "Which would explain why it's upping the body count. The lake is draining. It'll be dry in a few months. Whatever this thing is, whatever it wants, it's running out of time." **

** "And if it can get through the pipes, it can get to anyone, almost anywhere." Dean stood up and made his way over to the table. "This is gonna happen again soon." Dean sat down on a chair and began pulling on his shoes. **

** "And we do know one other thing for sure. We know this has got something to do with Bill Carlton." **

** "Yeah, it took both his kids." **

** "And I've been asking around. Lucas's dad, Chris—Bill Carlton's godson." **

** "Let's go pay Mr. Carlton a visit." **

** Bill Carlton was sitting on the bench on the dock. **

** "Mr. Carlton?" Sam called out. **

** Bill looked up and Sam and Dean approached. **

** "We'd like to ask you a few questions, if you don't mind." **

** "We're from the, the Department—" **

** "I don't care who you're with. I've answered enough questions today," Bill retorted. **

** "Your son said he saw something in that lake. What about you? You ever see anything out there? Mr. Carlton, Sophie's drowning and Will's death—we think there might be a connection to you or your family." **

** "My children are gone. It's...it's worse than dying. Go away. Please," Bill begged. **

Bobby, Dean, and Jody (the only ones in the room who'd lot a child) all looked down. Claire wrapped her arms around Jody's waist, Sam moved to sit in the chair beside Bobby (he might not have had any biological children, but he'd lost both Sam and Dean at some point), and Cas gripped Dean's hand tighter. 

** Sam and Dean started heading back to the car. **

** "What do you think?" Sam asked his brother. **

** "Aw, I think the poor guy's been through hell. I also think he's not telling us something." **

** Sam leaned on the Impala. "So now what?" **

** Dean went still. **

** "What is it?" **

** "Huh." Dean was looking at the Carlton house. "Maybe Bill's not the only one who knows something." Dean pulled out the picture Lucas brought him, which was of the Carlton house. Dean looked over at Sam. **

"He'd never seen that house before, right? How did he know what it looked like?" Claire asked. 

"You'll see," Cas vaguely answered.

** Over at the Barr household, the brothers were talking to Andrea. "I'm sorry, but I don't think it's a good idea." **

** "I just need to talk to him," Dean said. **

** Sam and Dean were inside Andrea's house, talking to her. **

** "Just for a few minutes," he begged. **

** "He won't say anything. What good's it gonna do?" Andrea asked. **

** "Andrea, we think more people might get hurt. We think something's happening out there," Sam explained. **

** "My husband, the others, they just drowned. That's all." **

** "If that's what you really believe, then we'll go. But if you think there's even a possibility that something else could be going on here, please let me talk to your son." **

"She seemed so adamant about how her husband died. Why did she change her mind about how her husband died?" Charlie asked. She'd been a hunter for a while now, but the way people reacted to certain situations.

"Many people have their suspicions, especially when it comes to a loved one's death," Rowena explained. 

"I think she'd also seen how Lucas responded to Dean and was willing to do anything to possibly help him," Sam added.

"I mean, it wasn't anything special.  _ Sam _ probably could've gotten the same result out of him," Dean stammered.  _ Sure _ , he  _ might've _ been pretty decent with kids, but he wasn't the best. He barely kept Sam alive throughout their life. 

"Yeah,  _ now, _ maybe, but definitely not then. You connect to kids in a way I never could."

Dean looked over at Cas when he felt the angel nudge his shoulder. "It's special. Be proud of it." 

He looked back at Sammy when he heard him start chuckling. He glared at him lifted his hand, stuck up his finger, and squeezed them together while his thumb stayed tucked against his palm, and slammed the side against his jaw. " _ Bitch _ ."

Sam smiled back and fingerspelled " _ jerk _ ."

** Lucas was coloring, toy soldiers standing around him when Dean, Andrea, and Sam approached the doorway. Dean entered and crouched down by the boy. **

** "Hey, Lucas. You remember me?" **

** Lucas had drawn two more pictures of a red bicycle. **

** "You know, I, uh, I wanted to thank you for that last drawing. But the thing is, I need your help again." **

** Lucas was drawing a person in water. Dean opened the house picture and put it down in front of him. **

** "How did you know to draw this? Did you know something bad was gonna happen? Maybe you could nod yes or no for me." **

** Lucas kept coloring. **

** "You're scared. It's okay. I understand. See, when I was your age, I saw something real bad happen to my mom, and I was scared, too. I didn't feel like talking, just like you." **

"How long did that last?"

Everyone was shocked when they heard her voice; Mary hadn't spoken since the beginning of this whole thing.

After snapping out of their stupors, the brothers looked at each other and shrugged, not knowing the answer and not knowing what to think about  _ this _ being what made Mary begin to interact with them.

"I remember it lasting nearly a year, I think," Bobby answered. 

"Six months," Cas corrected. He turned to look at Mary, his face void of any emotion, but his eyes were boring into hers. "The first time he spoke since your death was Sam's birthday. For the next year, the only person he spoke to was Sam."

It was then that Mary was reminded she was looking at Castiel, Angel of the lord. She'd always told her boys that angels were looking over them, but she'd never really realized what that could mean. She couldn't understand how John could be so violent toward him. She  _ did _ feel some fear toward him, but she was happy that he was protecting her boys.

"Cas," Sam whispered over his brother's head, getting the angel's attention.

When he looked over Cas noticed that Dean was hunched over, his elbows resting on his knees as he was messing with his fidget ring, his right leg bouncing up and down. Cas let out a sigh as he looked at Sam. Sam began rubbing his big brother's back while Cas took Dean's right hand in his left, rubbing his thumb on the back. While Sam signed to Bobby what was going on, Cas turned back to Crowley and Rowena and signed two words: "ADHD" and "cube." Crowley nodded and disappeared while Rowena grabbed her bag from the ground and began rummaging through it.

Rowena pulled out a small pill bottle at the same time Crowley showed up with a water bottle and a small cube in his hand.

It was a small, black cube with a small silver ball with green cogs, a white switch, a red joystick, a brown spinning disc, and five small, blue buttons.

Cas took the cube while Sam took both bottles. At that point, Charlie was kneeling down in front of her brother, one hand on the man's knee while the other was covering his fidgeting hands and Bobby was standing beside them with a hand on Dean's shoulder.

Dean's had ADHD all his life, but he never knew about it until Cas told him about it in 2010, when the angel witnessed one of the hunter's episodes. Since then, those in his family who knew about his ADHD continuously bought him fidget toys or things for him to fidget with when needed. He's got one or two fidget cubes, snap and clicks, and jr tangles, but he's got a generous collection of various fidget rings and slinkies. His first fidget toy was a cheap fidget cube Sam bought the next day after they found out about his ADHD, but his favorite would have to be the slinky Sam gave him after the case at Plucky's in 2012; It was his biggest and most treasured slinky (and he's got over a dozen).

Cas motioned for Charlie to take her hands off Dean's, quickly releasing the hand he was holding and placed the cube in the hunter's palms. Dean immediately started messing with the cube, speedily pushing the buttons, the joystick, flipping the switch, and using the small ball to help spin the cogs. 

After a minute, the intensity Dean was attacking the cube with was slowing down, then he finally stopped and looked up at Cas, his eyes clearing from the veil that had been clouding them for the past twenty minutes.

"Hey," Cas whispered, knowing Dean would still be slightly overwhelmed. 

"Hey," Dean whispered back. 

Sam got his brother's attention and handed him two pills and the water bottle. Dean downed the pills, then began messing with the fidget cube once more, though not with as much vigor as before.

"Hey, Kev, can you-" but before Sam could finish, Kevin was re-entering the room with a small thing of yogurt and spoon and handing them off to the younger brother. Sam thanked the prophet and handed it to his brother to eat.

At that point, everyone else not involved in the situation had remained quiet, not knowing what to say/what was going on.

"What's the yogurt for?" Claire asked. She was kind of frightened by what happened to Dean, one of her father figures. She'd always seen him, as well as Castiel, as some immovable force; they'd died, fought demons, ghosts, and angels, and they'd won. But seeing him break down and vulnerable was a tad distressing.

"Yogurt has protein in it along with low-fat and carbs, which help stabilize energy levels as well as help his body absorb the medication faster," Cas explained, having known some of the information from his few times on Earth, but doing his own in-depth research to help the love of his life.

Dean collapsed against the back of the couch with a smile on his face and his eyes closed as he continued to mess with the fidget cube and the fidget ring on his left index finger.

"He looks fine," John ground out, wanting to get this whole thing over with so he could enact the plan he'd been creating since he first saw who his sons were fraternizing with.

"He's far from fine and you know this, you just care more about yourself than you do your son, trying to keep up some macho bravado," Bobby glowered. "Is there anything you care about besides yourself and your wife?"

Mary balked at the idea. Her husband cared about their sons, he had to. Right? She turned to look at him expecting to see him upset at the accusation. What she wasn't expecting, however, was to see his face unchanged, unfazed, as if what Bobby said was true. Before she could say anything, the show unpaused and continued playing.

** At that, Sam looked at his brother, clearing not knowing about that. **

** "But see, my mom—I know she wanted me to be brave. I think about that every day. And I do my best to be brave. And maybe, your dad wants you to be brave too." **

** Lucas dropped his crayon and looked up at Dean. He handed Dean a picture of a white church, a yellow house, and a boy with a blue baseball cap and a red bicycle in front of a wooden fence. **

** "Thanks, Lucas." **

Cas smiled as he wrapped an arm around Dean.

** Later, Dean and Sam were in the Impala, Sam holding the church picture. **

** "Andrea said the kid never drew like that till his dad died," Dean began. **

** "There are cases—going through a traumatic experience could make people more sensitive to premonitions, psychic tendencies," Sam explained. **

** "Whatever's out there, what if Lucas is tapping into it somehow? I mean, it's only a matter of time before somebody else drowns, so if you got a better lead, please." **

** "All right, we got another house to find." **

** "The only problem is there's about a thousand yellow two-stories in this county alone." **

** Sam looked back at the picture. "See this church? I bet there's less than a thousand of those around here." **

** "Oh, College Boy thinks he's so smart." **

"I am," Sam said.

Dean stuck out his tongue before tossing his fidget cube at his brother. Sam just laughed and returned it.

** "You know, um...," Sam started. "What you said about Mom... You never told me that before." **

** "It's no big deal," Dean shrugged off. "Oh God, we're not gonna have to hug or anything, are we?" **

Jody reached across and over the back of the couch, resting a hand on Dean's left shoulder, the one not resting against Cas, and began massaging it.

If it was even possible, Dean's muscles relaxed further causing him to turn to mush against his boyfriend's side.

** They approached a white church shaped like the one in Lucas's picture. Dean held up the picture and looked at it, comparing it to the scene in front of him; there was a yellow house next to the church and a wooden fence near the house. Sam looked at Dean then they both looked up at the church and crossed the street to the house. **

** Sam and Dean were inside the house, speaking to an old woman, Mrs. Sweeney. **

** "We're sorry to bother you, ma'am, but does a little boy live here, by chance? He might wear a blue ball cap, has a red bicycle." **

** "No sir. Not for a very long time. Peter's been gone for thirty-five years now." **

** There was a picture of Peter on the side table. Mrs. Sweeney sighed. **

** "The police never—I never had any idea what happened. He just disappeared." **

** Sam pointed out to Dean several toy soldiers on a table. **

** "Losing him—you know, it's...it's worse than dying." **

Claire looked at Jody, who returned her gaze, and gripped her hand.

** Dean glanced at Sam. **

** "Did he disappear from here? I mean, from this house?" Dean asked. **

** "He was supposed to ride his bike straight home after school, and he never showed up." **

** Dean picked a picture off the mirror. There were two boys in the picture, one Peter with a bicycle. Dean read from the back of the picture. **

** "Peter Sweeney and Billy Carlton, nineteen seventy." **

** At the lake, Bill was sitting on the bench on the dock, talking to himself, or to the lake. **

** "You've taken everything, everyone. I've got nothing left. I didn't understand. I didn't believe. Now I think I do. I think I finally know what you want." **

** In the Impala, Dean and Sam were driving. **

** "Okay, this little boy Peter Sweeney vanishes, and this is all connected to Bill Carlton somehow," Sam began thinking. **

** "Yeah, Bill sure as hell seems to be hiding something, huh?" **

** "And Bill, the people he loves, they're all getting punished." **

** "So what if Bill did something to Peter?" **

** "What if Bill killed him?" **

** "Peter's spirit would be furious. It'd want revenge. It's possible." **

** The Impala pulled up in front of the Carlton house. Sam and Dean approached the house. **

** "Mr. Carlton?" **

** An engine roared and Sam and Dean went around the house to see Bill going out on the lake in his boat. **

** "Hey, check it out." **

** Sam and Dean ran to the end of the dock, yelling. **

** "Mr. Carlton! You need to come back! Come out of the water! Turn the boat around!" **

** "Mr. Carlton!" **

** Bill ignored them and kept going. The water rose up and flipped Bill's boat over. It and he vanished. **

** At the police station, Lucas was sitting in a chair, rocking back and forth. Andrea was sitting next to him, holding a paper bag and a plastic container. "Baby, what's wrong?" **

** Sam, Dean, and Jake Devins walked in the door. Andrea looked over. **

** "Sam, Dean." She stood up, putting the bag and container on her chair. "I didn't expect to see you here." **

** "So now you're on a first-name basis. What are you doing here?" **

** "I brought you dinner." **

** "I'm sorry, sweetheart, I don't really have the time." **

** "I heard about Bill Carlton. Is it true? Is something going on with the lake?" **

** "Right now we don't know what the truth is. But I think it might be better if you and Lucas went on home." **

** Lucas looked up and whined, looking stricken; he jumped up and grabbed Dean's arm. **

** "Lucas, hey, what is it? Lucas." **

"Aww," Charlie gasped, covering her mouth with both hands, clearly in awe of the connection those two had.

Even now, Dean had a worried and sad face; He clearly cared for the boy.

"How did you get him to confide in you instead of his own mom, Squirrel?" Crowley asked. He'd seen his fair share of teens in Hell from his demons taking advantage of young children. Luckily he realized they were kids before they got to the racks. He would rip up the contracts and convince the dickheads upstairs to accept the kids' souls. They were always afraid and refused to talk to him; Getting ripped to shreds by Hellhounds will do that to someone.

"Umm, I think the key is knowing what they've been through, shared experiences, that sort of thing. All the counselors I was forced to see as a kid tried to say they understood what I went through and it just made me mad."

Crowley nodded, taking in the information and saving it for later. He  _ did _ know what they'd gone through, having made a deal himself to end up down in Hell. He may not have been tricked into making a deal, no, he'd known exactly what he was doing selling his soul for an extra three inches below the belt, but he knew how terrifying it was to hear demonic howling, but not see where it was coming from; To see red eyes boring into your soul and feel their teeth and claws tear at his flesh. It was an experience few shared, but none forgot.

** "Lucas," Andrea tried. **

** "Lucas, it's okay. It's okay. Hey, Lucas, it's okay. It's okay." **

** Andrea pulled Lucas away from Dean and led him outside. Lucas didn't look away from Dean, and the hunter didn't look away from the boy. **

** Jake threw down his jacket and went into his office. Sam and Dean followed, the younger having to drag the other. **

** "Okay, just so I'm clear, you see...something attack Bill's boat, sending Bill—who is a very good swimmer, by the way—into the drink, and you never see him again?" **

** Dean glanced at Sam. "Yeah, that about sums it up." **

"Yes, because he'll believe that, dear."

** "And I'm supposed to believe this, even though I've already sonar-swept that entire lake? And what you're describing is impossible? And you're not really Wildlife Service?" **

** Dean looked surprised. **

** "That's right, I checked. Department's never heard of you two." **

** "See, now, we can explain that," Dean began. **

** "Enough. Please. The only reason you're breathing free air is one of Bill's neighbors saw him steering out that boat just before you did. So, we have a couple of options here. I can arrest you for impersonating government officials and hold you as material witnesses to Bill Carlton's disappearance. Or, we can chalk this all up to a bad day, you get into your car, you put this town in your rearview mirror, and you don't ever darken my doorstep again." **

** "Door number two sounds good." **

** "That's the one I'd pick." **

** At the Barr household, Lucas was in his room with the toy soldiers, drawing another black spiral. Andrea walked by his door in a robe. **

** "Baby, what are you doing up? Come on. Let's go to bed." Andrea picked Lucas up. **

** Dean and Sam were in the Impala, waiting at a traffic light. A sign said I-43 North to Milwaukee was to the left. The light turned green and the Impala didn't move. **

** "Green," Sam said. **

** "What?" **

** "Light's green." **

** Dean turned right. **

"What're you doing, boy? You finished the hunt, it's over," John reprimanded.

"Obviously there's something we're not seeing that he did. The boy  _ is  _ much smarter than anyone gives him credit for," Rowena shot back.

Both Dean and John scoffed, "pfft, yeah right."

John glared at his eldest for speaking while Dean stared wide-eyed at the man who was supposed to be his father. It wasn't that he disagreed, it was actually the opposite, he agreed wholeheartedly; no, it was the fact that John willingly said in front of people who'd stood up to John for him before.

Everyone was in too much shock at the fact John just called his son stupid to do anything, so Mary slugged her husband in the arm. "That was uncalled for. Apologize."

"No, Mom," Dean waved her off, "it doesn't matter." He wanted to say John wasn't wrong, but he didn't want to start an argument.

As if Cas could read his mind, the angel began rubbing his arm.

** "Uh, the interstate's the other way." **

** "I know." **

** Andrea was in the bathroom. She plugged the drain of her tub and turned the water on. **

"Well, that's not gonna end well," Kevin whispered and Charlie nodded beside him.

** "But Dean, this job, I think it's over." **

** "I'm not so sure." **

** "If Bill murdered Peter Sweeney and Peter's spirit got its revenge, case closed. The spirit should be at rest." **

** "All right, so what if we take off and this thing isn't done? You know, what if we've missed something? What if more people get hurt?" **

** "But why would you think that?" **

** "Because Lucas was really scared." **

"Of course it's the fucking kid," John muttered under his breath.

Bobby heard what he said and had half a mind to smack him upside the head, but the episode was almost over, so maybe then.

** "That's what this is about?" **

** "I just don't want to leave this town until I know the kid's okay. **

** "Who are you? And what have you done with my brother?" **

** Dean glanced over at his brother. "Shut up." **

** The bathtub was mostly full and Andrea tested the water with one hand. She took off her robe and got in the water. She leaned back, grabbed a washcloth, and closed her eyes. The water coming out of the faucet turned brown. Andrea started washing herself with the cloth, then opened her eyes. The water was entirely brown now. She screamed and tried to get out of the tub, but something dragged her down. **

** Lucas was outside in the hallway, pounding on the bathroom door. **

** Andrea's head was pulled under the water. She pulled it out but she was pulled under again; lather, rinse, repeat. Lucas kept pounding. Andrea was invisible under the water. **

** Sam and Dean arrived at the house. **

** "Are you sure about this? It's pretty late, man." **

** Dean rang the doorbell. At that moment, Lucas threw open the door, desperately afraid. **

** "Lucas? Lucas!" **

** Lucas took off, Sam and Dean following behind. **

** Water was pouring out from under the bathroom door and down the stairs. Lucas started pounding on the bathroom door again. Dean pushed him over to Sam and kicked in the door. Lucas grabbed Dean, so Sam ran into the bathroom and stuck his arms in the tub, trying to pull Andrea out. She was pulled back under, but Sam kept pulling until Andrea was all the way out. She started coughing up water. **

** Dawn was breaking. Sam and Andrea sat in the living room. Andrea was dry and wearing comfortable clothing. **

** "Can you tell me?" Sam asked. **

** "No." **

** Dean was looking through notebooks on bookshelves. **

** "It doesn't make any sense." Andrea started crying. "I'm going crazy." **

** She put her face in her hands. **

** "No, you're not. Tell me what happened. Everything." **

** "I heard...I thought I heard...there was this voice." **

** "What did it say?" **

** "It said...it said 'come play with me'." Andrea sobbed. "What's happening?" **

** Dean pulled out a scrapbook that said "Jake – 12 years old" and opened it, flipping pages. He closed it again and went to Sam and Andrea; he put the book down in front of Andrea, opening to a picture of Explorer Troop 37. **

** "Do you recognize the kids in these pictures?" **

** "What? Um, um, no. I mean, except that's my dad right there. He must have been about twelve in these pictures." **

** She moved her finger over to another picture of Jake as a child; he was standing next to Peter. Dean looked at Sam. **

** "Chris Barr's drowning. The connection wasn't to Bill Carlton. It must have been to the sheriff." **

** "Bill and the sheriff—they were both involved with Peter." **

** "What about Chris? My dad—what are you talking about?" **

** Dean looks sideways. "Lucas?" **

** Lucas was staring out the window. **

** "Lucas, what is it?" **

** Lucas opened the door and walked outside. Everyone followed. **

** "Lucas, honey?" **

** Lucas stopped and looked at the ground, then at Dean. **

"God, the way he connects to you, you'd think you're his dad," Jody commented.

Sam chuckled. "Yeah, he's like that with every kid he's ever met. He's either their father figure or their older brother. But he usually plays the father figure."

"Oh, yeah? With who? Who do I do that with?"

"Charlie, from the Bloody Mary case-"

"You were closer with her during that case," Dean countered.

"Hold on, they fought Bloody Mary?" Claire whispered.

"Fine, Michael, from when all the kids were falling into a coma."

"Yeah, cause I almost lost you to the same monster and I knew what he was going through alright?"

"Jo. You acted like her big brother even though she had a crush on you."

"I was only a few years older than her!"

"Ben! There's no way he's not yours."

"Lisa said he's not mine, and I believe her."

"How?! He's like a carbon copy of you."

"What the fuck is happening?" Kevin whispered to Charlie and Claire who both shrugged.

"Fine, whatever. What about Jesse?"

"What? That anti-christ that Cas tried killing? That's cause I didn't want to risk him hurting anyone."

"Sure. The shifter baby?"

At that, Dean's eyes widened for a moment before he looked down.

"Dean, I know you really cared for Bobby-John. And despite what you say, there's a difference between keeping a kid alive and taking care of them." Sam reached over and patted his brother on the shoulder and leaned closer to his ear. "I know you want your own family someday, and you will. Just hold on, big brother."

Dean kept his eyes down, taking a deep breath as he swallowed the lump in his throat. He nodded and looked up, smiling at his little brother. The little brother he raised, the one he sacrificed mind, body, and soul for, the one that mattered to him more than anything/anyone else in the world.

** "You and Lucas get back to the house and stay there, okay?" He told Andrea. **

** She pulled Lucas back to the house. Dean and Sam presumably fetched shovels from the Impala, before they start digging. Sam's shovel clanked against something. They dug with their hands and pulled out a red bicycle. **

** "Peter's bike." **

** "Who are you?" Jake called out. **

** Sam and Dean turned around; Jake was there, pointing a gun at them. **

** "Put the gun down, Jake," Sam said as both he and his brother dropped the shovels. **

"Why does no one realize that we're there to help them?" Bobby asked.

"Because they prefer living in their little world of ignorance instead of facing up to the fact that they've fucked up, darling," Crowley answered.

Bobby just turned around and sneered at the King of Hell. 

** "How did you know that was there?" Jake asked. **

** "What happened? You and Bill killed Peter, drowned him in the lake and then buried the bike? You can't bury the truth, Jake. Nothing stays buried." **

** Andrea saw Jake with the gun aimed at Sam and Dean. She kneeled down and talked to Lucas. "Go to your room, sweetie. Now. Lock the door and wait for me. Don't come out." **

** Lucas ran off and Andrea went outside. **

** "I don't know what the hell you're talking about," Jake said. **

** "You and Bill killed Peter Sweeney thirty-five years ago. That's what the hell I'm talking about," Dean retorted. **

** Andrea ran up. "Dad!" **

** "And now you got one seriously pissed-off spirit," Dean finished. **

** "It's gonna take Andrea, Lucas, everyone you love. It's gonna drown them. And it's gonna drag their bodies God knows where, so you can feel the same pain Peter's mom felt. And then, after that, it's gonna take you, and it's not gonna stop until it does." **

** "Yeah, and how do you know that?" **

** "Because that's exactly what it did to Bill Carlton," Sam said. **

** "Listen to yourselves, both of you. You're insane." **

** "I don't really give a rat's ass what you think of us. But if we're gonna bring down this spirit, we need to find the remains, salt them, and burn them into dust. Now tell me you buried Peter somewhere. Tell me you didn't just let him go in the lake." **

"Of course he bloody did."

** Lucas didn't go to his room; he was outside watching. **

** "Come play with me," a voice whispered in Lucas's ear and he followed it. **

** "Dad, is any of this true?" Andrea asked. **

** "No. Don't listen to them. They're liars and they're dangerous." **

** "Something tried to drown me. Chris died on that lake. Dad, look at me." **

** Jake did. **

** "Tell me you—you didn't kill anyone." **

** Jake looked away. **

** "Oh my God." **

** "Billy and I were at the lake. Peter was the smallest one. We always bullied him, but this time, it got rough. We were holding his head under the water. We didn't mean to. But we held him under too long and he drowned. We let the body go, and it sank." **

** Dean glanced at Sam. **

** "Oh, Andrea, we were kids. We were so scared. It was a mistake. But, Andrea, to say that I have anything to do with these drownings, with Chris, because of some ghost? It's not rational." **

** "All right, listen to me, all of you," Dean began. "We need to get you away from this lake, as far as we can, right now." **

** Andrea turned her head and spotted Lucas going down to the lake. She gasped. **

"God, that kid is gonna get himself killed," Jody said in exasperation.

Dean's breath hitched for just a second, but it was enough for Cas to begin rubbing his back, leaning in to whisper, "he's alive."

** "Lucas!" Jake yelled out. **

** They all ran up to the dock. Lucas was leaning over the side, reaching for a toy soldier in the water. **

** "Come play with me," the voice called again. **

** "Lucas!" Dean yelled. **

** "Lucas! Baby, stay where you are!" Andrea called. **

** A hand came up and pulled Lucas into the water. The adults had reached the edge of the lake, but Jake stopped. Peter's head was visible; Jake recognized him. Dean and Sam kept running to the end of the dock and dove in. **

"Damn, that was smooth," Bobby complimented. 

"Thanks, man. It took a lot of practice," Sam smiled.

At that moment, Cas looked over when he felt someone nudge him; It was Dean. He was holding out his fidget cube, probably done with it and wanting Cas to take care of it. Cas smiled and nodded, grabbing the small object and placing it in his pocket next to the other small box.

** "Oh my God!" Andrea yelled again. **

** She took off her jacket to jump in, but Sam saw and yelled, "Andrea, stay there!" **

** "No! Lucas!" **

** "We'll get him! Just stay on the dock!" **

** Sam dove under again. Dean came up and a minute later, so did Sam. **

** "Sam?" **

** Sam just shook his head. **

** "Lucas, where are you?" Andrea wailed. **

** Jake took off his jacket as Sam and Dean dive back down. Jake waded in and Andrea looked over. **

** "Peter, if you can hear me...please, Peter, I'm sorry. I'm so—I'm so sorry," Jake apologized. **

** "Daddy, no!" **

** "Peter. Lucas—he's, he's just a little boy. Please, it's not his fault, it's mine. Please take me." **

** Dean and Sam came up for air. **

** "Jake, no!" Dean yelled. **

** Peter surfaced. **

** "Just let it be over!" And Jake was dragged down. **

** "Daddy! Daddy! No!" **

** Dean and Sam dove down again. **

** "No!" **

** Sam came up, shaking his head. Andrea mouthed 'no!' **

** Dean suddenly came up, holding Lucas, who wasn't moving. **

"That was scary. Having to try and keep not only myself but also a ten-year-old boy above the water while I could feel something pull at my feet." Dean shook his head. "Ten-outta-ten would not recommend. Not a fun experience."

That drew a chuckle from the teens (Charlie, Claire, and Kev).

** The next day, Dean and Sam walked out of the motel. Dean opened the car door and Sam tossed a duffel in. **

** "Look, we're not gonna save everybody," Sam started. **

** "I know." **

** "Sam, Dean." Andrea walked up with Lucas. **

** "Hey." **

** "We're glad we caught you. We just, um, we made you lunch for the road." **

** Lucas was carrying a tray of sandwiches. **

** "Lucas insisted on making the sandwiches himself." **

** "Can I give it to them now?" Lucas whispered to his mom. **

"Aww, you got him talking again," Charlie gasped in awe once more.

"I don't think it was-" Dean was cut off with a stern look from Cas. "Or not, nevermind. It was all me. I single-handedly made a kid get over his trauma."

Sam smacked him upside the head. "That's not what he meant and you know it."

Dean just stuck his tongue out.

** "Of course." Andrea smiled and kissed Lucas's head. **

** "Come on, Lucas, let's load this into the car," Dean said, shepparding the boy to the other side of the car. **

** "How you holding up?" Sam asked. **

** "It's just gonna take a long time to sort through everything, you know?" **

** Sam sighed. "Andrea, I'm sorry." **

** Andrea shook her head. "You saved my son. I can't ask for more than that. Dad loved me. He loved Lucas. No matter what he did, I just have to hold on to that." **

** Dean put the sandwiches in the car. "All right, if you're gonna be talking now, this is a very important phrase, so I want you to repeat it one more time." **

** "Zeppelin rules!" Lucas cheered. **

"Of course," Kevin mumbled.

** "That's right. Up high," Dean held his hand up for a high-five. Lucas obliged, grinning. "You take care of your mom, okay?" **

** "All right." **

** Andrea came up and kissed Dean. "Thank you." **

** Dean thought for a minute, then scratched the back of his neck and went around the car. "Sam, move your ass. We're gonna run out of daylight before we hit the road." **

"How can a womanizer like you, who flirted with her when you first met, get  _ so _ awkward at a kiss?" Jody asked.

"He flirts with anything that walks," Bobby added.

"Hardy-har. No, she just wasn't my type," Dean explained, looking over at his boyfriend with the most loving look he could muster.

"We get it, you like black-haired, blue-eyed angels."

Dean began to blush while Cas just smiled and gripped Dean's hand. "And I love brunette, green-eyed hunters."

If even possible, Dean blushed harder and buried his face in the crook of Cas's neck.

** Dean got in the car, then Sam. Bad Company's "Movin' On" started to play when Dean started the engine. **

** Sam and Dean smiled at Andrea and Lucas waving goodbye as they drove away. **

"That was a good episode," Sam said.

"I especially enjoyed the parts where Dean interacted with Lucas," Cas shared.

"I didn't know you liked kids, Cas," Jody said.

Cas nodded. "I didn't understand them at first, but now that I do, I care for them. They have some of the purest souls I've seen in a long time. I enjoy their company."

Dean smiled and wrapped his arms around Cas. Beside them, Sam and Charlie smiled. They both knew the two of them wanted a family, but they had their reservations. Neither of them wanted to raise a child the way Sam and Dean grew up and they both thought they'd be bad fathers. Of course, everyone knew they would be the best fathers in the world, but oh well.

"I would love to see Dean acting like a Dad," Charlie said.

"Well, to someone other than us," Kevin said, motioning to the teens.

Sam smiled. "Well, it'll be a while, but you will at some point."

They're cut off by loud yawning coming from the kids.

"I think it's time for bed," Bobby declared as he stood up. 

Looking over, Claire and Kevin were leaning back in their seats, their eyes closed and their breathing slowing. 

"Alright, we'll get everyone set up with a room and we'll head to bed for the night. We'll make breakfast in the morning then we'll begin again," Sam explained, everyone nodding in agreement and standing up.

Dean headed toward Kevin and leaned down, placing his hands under the boy's armpits and picked him up, Kevin automatically wrapping his legs around Dean's waist and snuggling his face into the crook of his neck. Dean smiled as he adjusted his hold on the boy.

Everyone turned to look when they heard Claire started whining. 

Jody was standing up and grabbing Claire's arm, trying to pull her up to her feet. But Claire was pulling, too tired to walk to her room. "Noo, I don't want to walk."

"Claire, I can't carry you, you know this."

Cas smiled and made his way over, picking Claire up the same way Dean picked up Kevin, nodding toward Jody. Everyone left the room and Sam appointed everyone rooms close to Team Free Will. Dean and Cas put Claire and Kevin in the rooms on either side of theirs.

After everyone is in their rooms and sleeping, Cas and Dean head to the bathroom to shower and brush their teeth. They went back to their room to change before hopping in bed, Dean resting his head on Cas's chest.

After turning out the lights, the couple lay in silence for a minute.

"Have you ever thought about having a family?" Dean whispered.

Cas thought for a moment. "I have. Have you?"

Dean nodded and snuggled closer to the angel. "Yeah."

Another bit of silence. "Is there a reason you've waited this long to bring it up?" Cas asked.

"It's just, everyone was talking about how good of a dad I'd be and I'm just not too sure."

"What're you unsure about? The fact that you think you hurt everyone you touch and get close to? Because I can assure you you don't. You're the most caring and kind person I've ever met. I know you'd love our child to the fullest extent of your heart and would kill to protect them. You'd be an amazing father."

Dean ignored the water in his eyes and swallowed the lump in his throat. He moved his arm from resting on Cas's chest to wrapping around him, snuggling closer. "I love you," Dean murmured against the angel's chest.

Cas began running his fingers through Dean's hair, knowing it would knock him right out. And as predicted, Dean was out within the minute.

"I love you, too," Cas whispered into the night before himself falling asleep.


	4. (S1 : E4) Bloody Mary Scene

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> ** Means Cas is speaking in Enochian. I can't find a good translator, so this is what you get.

Dean slowly opened his eyes. He was comfortable and warm, something he hadn't been waking up in another no-name motel room while working a case in Oklahoma. He smiled and looked up when he felt hands carefully raking through his hair, untangling the knots from sleep. 

**"Good morning, my hunter."**

Dean smiled more and leaned up, gently pecking his boyfriend on the lips. "Good morning, my angel." Dean rested his head on Cas's chest. After a moment he looked back up. "What time is it?"

"It's currently 9:53. Sam stopped by an hour ago to check on you. Everyone has been up for the past two hours and Jody and Bobby started breakfast half an hour ago. It should be done any minute now."

Dean sighed and laid his head back down. 

Cas began to rub his hand up and down Dean's spine, gently massaging the tense muscle. "Dean, I know as much as you want to, you can't hide out forever."

The hunter sighed again and buried his face in the angel's bare chest before placing a kiss on his sternum and sitting up, shivering at the cold air. He threw off the covers and stood up, heading to the other side of the room, and began to dress.

At that moment, a knock sounded through the room.

"Come on," Cas called out.

Sam opened the door and peeked his head in. "Hey, just wanted to let you know breakfast is ready." He looked over and saw Dean getting dressed. "Oh, hey. Good morning."

Dean nodded his direction, but never took his eyes off the clothes he was throwing on.

Sam noticed that he was foregoing his Deadman's robe, something he only did when he felt unsafe or uncomfortable. Sam looked over at Cas, and the expression he saw reflected back at him said that Cas noticed it, too.

Sam just backed out and closed the door behind him, heading back to the kitchen where everyone else was.

Cas got off the bed and walked up to Dean, wrapping his arms around his waist. "We don't have to go out there if you really don't want to. I can go out and get it and bring it back and we can hide out in here until everyone's ready to watch.

Dean shook his head and leaned back. "No, I need to go out. I can't hide in here forever, can I?" He looked over his shoulder and pecked the angel's lips. Then he gestured to what Cas was wearing, completely nude beside his boxers. "You need to get dressed, too."

Cas snapped his fingers, and suddenly he was wearing one of Dean's old band tees, a Metallica one to be exact, and a pair of worn-in black sweats.

"Show off," Dean mumbled before turning around in Cas's arms, wrapping his arms around the angel's neck.

"You ready?" Cas asked.

"Nope, but we're going anyway."

Cas pecked the hunter's forehead and let go, Dean doing the same. Cas grabbed his hand and dragged him out of the room and into the kitchen.

Claire, Kevin, and Charlie were setting out plates while Bobby, Jody, and Sam were doing something at the stove. John, Mary, Crowley, and Rowena were sitting at the table.

Everyone turned to look at the couple as they walked in. Some of them looked back at each other when they noticed the lack of the robe.

"Aww, the dynamic duo has arrived. Morning Squirrel, Feathers."

"Nice of you two idjits 'ta join us." He gestured to the island in the middle of the room. "Have a seat, breakfast is served."

The couple sat on the barstools he was pretty sure weren't there a minute ago. Claire popped up and placed a plate in front of each of them, kissed Dean on the cheek, gave Cas a side hug, then disappeared.

Jody then came over and plopped pancakes and eggs on each of their plates. She was about to walk away but paused when she noticed something.

"Hey, Dean? What's that?" She asked as she gestured to his left forearm.

Dean looked down and adjusted his flannel and his paracord and bead bracelets to show the half-sleeve tattoo taking up the entirety of the inside of his left forearm. The most noticeable were the Colt, some beautiful black and blue feathers, and the word family. The rest of the space was taken up by intricate swirls tying the whole piece together.

"Oh, this? I've had since for the past decade I think. I've got them all over."

"How did I not notice?" The Sheriff asked. She'd seen the boy plenty of times over the years, but she'd never had any clue about the tattoos.

"Because when I'm on a case where I have to be FBI, I have to cover most of them, especially the sleeve. Can't have any identifiable markers."

At that point, Kevin and Claire had come over to see the sleeve. 

"What other ones do you have?" Charlie asked.

"Umm, I've got a wing going over my right shoulder, I've got a flower going up my spine with a hawk on one side and a phoenix on the other, a handprint on my left bicep, some important names and dates on my ribs, an arrow on my finger, a Norse symbol on the back of my neck, and a Vonnegut quote on the inside of my left bicep," Dean explained and the kids seemed intrigued.

"Don't forget the tramp-stamp!" Sam called out as he finished dishing out breakfast, causing Dean to blush as nearly everyone else laughed.

"Can we see?" Claire asked.

Dean's eyes widened and he glanced at his pancakes. "Umm, after breakfast."

The kids took that answer and moved back to the table and began to eat.

When everyone went back to their food and began to chat, Cas reached over and grabbed Dean's hand. "Are you ok?"

Dean nodded and took a bite of his ketchup-covered eggs. "Yeah, I'm fine."

Once everyone finished, they put everything in the sink, and Cas and Dean took their place washing the dishes.

20-30 minutes later, everyone was back in the Dean cave.

"Can we see the tattoos, now? Please?" Kevin called out.

"Yeah, yeah, go sit down." 

Kevin, Claire, and Charlie rushed to sit down and eagerly awaited.

Dean looked over at Cas, who was leaning against the armrest of the couch, and proceeded to strip off the flannel before pulling his henley over his head and throwing it at Cas. The angel sputtered when the shirt landed on his head and Dean laughed.

With Dean facing away from them, they couldn't help themselves as Kevin ran his fingers down the tattoo of the Hyssop flower going up his spine while Claire ghosted her fingers over the wing, starting on his right shoulder blade and going over his shoulder and down his arm, nearly reaching his elbow. They also noticed the Celtic Shield Knot on the back of his neck.

Dean heard Charlie scoff behind him. "Nice bi-flag tramp stamp." 

He turned to look over at her. "You should see Sam's." That got the kids laughing as Sam began to blush. "I've also got a rosebush on the back of my left calf, but I'm not showing you that one. Now, can I put my shirt back on?"

"Wait, we haven't seen the ones on your front," Claire said.

Dean sighed and turned around. He held out his arm to show the Vonnegut quote on his bicep.

"How nice -- to feel nothing and still get full credit for being alive," Kevin read aloud.

Dean avoided the eyes staring at him and focused on Claire squinting at his ribs.

"What are these dates under Sam and Cas's names?" She asked.

"This date," he started, pointing to the date under Sam's name, _May 2, 1979,_ "is Sam's birthday." He pointed to the first one under Cas's name, _September 25, 2008,_ "This was the day Cas and I met." Then he pointed to the final date, _March 16, 2014_ , "And this is Cas and my's anniversary."

"Sap," Claire whispered and Sam, Kevin, Charlie, and Rowena began to chuckle as Dean's eyes widened.

"What did you say?" He asked, his eyes wide as he tried to fight down the smile.

Claire could tell he wasn't serious and latched her hands behind her back, diverting her eyes in an 'innocent' look. "Nothing," she said.

"That's it, come here," he exclaimed before dashing forward and picking her up, throwing her over his shoulder. He laughed at her shrieks and began tickling her, being careful not to drop her.

She was pounding at his back, but not enough to hurt him. "Let me go!"

"Wait, didn't Dean say _Sam_ has a tattoo?" Kevin asked.

Claire halted her hits and her legs stopped flailing. "What?"

Sam's eyes widened, waving his hand in front of his throat, mouthing the word no.

Dean smiled and leaned forward, placing Claire's feet on the ground. "Why don't you go bug him about his?"

The kids went over to Sam while Dean sat down next to Cas, taking his shirt from him and throwing it on.

"What tattoos do you have?" Kevin asked Sam.

"Well, Dean, Cas, my boyfriend Gabe, and I all have matching tattoos. Well, kind of. We all have a flower and birds that represent us. Dean has a hawk because they're amazing hunters and they represent honor, protection, and bravery. Phoenixes represent life and death, and with the number of times we've both died, it only seemed appropriate. The Hyssop flower represents sacrifice and cleanliness."

"Why cleanliness? Like, I understand the sacrifice, it makes a lot of sense, but that last one?"

"Have you _met_ my brother? He's a clean freak! Anyway, I've got an Owl on the back of my right thigh, a dill flower going up my side which represents 'powerful against evil', and a leafless oak tree on my ankle which represents strength. My boyfriend Gabe has five blackbirds going up his arm and an Acanthus flower on his side which represents trickery," Sam explained. No one (except Dean and Cas) knew who this Gabe was, but they hoped Sam told them at some point.

"Don't forget the tramp stamp!" Dean called out.

Sam sighed. "And I have a pan flag tramp stamp that Dean dared me to get."

Charlie, Claire, and Kevin then turned to Cas, the only other member of Team Free Will who hadn't spoken.

He pulled up his pant legs a tad to show the two bluebirds on the outside of his left ankle and the two blue jays on the outside of his right ankle. "They represent stable, pragmatic, and down-to-earth." He released the pant legs and turned around in his seat, lifting the back of his shirt but not taking it off. Going up the length of his spine, much like Dean's was two intertwining plants. "The bluish flower is a Borage, which means blunt and direct, which I've been told I am. The other is a Fern, which represents sincerity, humility, and magic bonds of love."

Charlie scoffed. "Magic bonds of love?" Then she spared a glance at Dean, who was looking at Cas with so much love that it was impossible to miss as he ran his fingers down his spine and the tattoo. "Makes sense."

"You have tattoos?" John seethed, the terrifying calmness to his voice stunted all other noise in the room. He never specified who he was talking to, but everyone knew he was talking to Dean and Dean alone, even though Sam also had tattoos.

Dean swallowed and nodded his head. "Y-yes, sir."

"What was the one rule I had about anything like that?"

"Don't have any identifiable marks because they could be used to find us and arrest us. But I always cover up my tattoos, even the ones the suit covers."

"I don't care, you-"

"Wait a minute, Dad, that's not fair. Dean's had some of these tattoos since he was a kid and he's never been arrested because of them. Plus, you have no right to demand anything of him. You've been dead for over a decade."

John went to say something when he noticed the angel's eyes seemed brighter than before as if they were _glowing._ John snapped his mouth shut, knowing when he wasn't going to be listened to.

"Now, if we're all done with the tattoos, why don't we start the episode we have today."

When no one objected, the screen lightened up a tad, indicating it was now on, and words appeared on the screen.

"Instead of showing this entire episode, I've decided to show only a scene. After that will be the next episode." The words changed. "Context for this scene is they're discussing how to kill Bloody Mary."

The words disappeared and the scene began.

**"Oh really?" Sam asked. "Ah, that's too bad Mr. Worthington. I would have paid a lot for that mirror. Okay, well maybe next time. All right, thanks." Sam hung up.**

**"So?" Dean questioned.**

**"So that was Mary's brother. The mirror was in the family for years, until he sold it one week ago to a store called Estate Antiques. A store in Toledo."**

**"So wherever the mirror goes, that's where Mary goes?"**

**"Her spirit's definitely tied up with it somehow."**

**"Isn't there an old superstition that says mirrors can capture spirits?"**

**"Yeah, there is. Yeah, when someone would die in a house people would cover up the mirrors so the ghost wouldn't get trapped."**

**"So Mary dies in front of a mirror, and it draws in her spirit."**

**"Yeah, but how could she move through like a hundred different mirrors?"**

**"I don't know, but if the mirror is the source, I say we find it and smash it."**

"It's not gonna be that easy, squirrel," Crowley said, ignoring the glare thrown his way.

**"Yeah, I don't know, maybe." Sam's phone began to ring. "Hello." A look of concern crossed his face. "Charlie?"**

"Heh?" Charlie asked.

"She was a friend of the original victim's eldest daughter and she was helping us with this case," Sam explained.

"Ahh."

**The camera cut to the motel Sam and Dean were staying at. Charlie was sitting on the bed with her head on her knees and Sam and Dean have all of the curtains drawn shut, and they were throwing sheets over the mirrors or facing them to the wall or floor.**

**Sam sat next to Charlie on the bed and whispered, "Hey, hey it's ok. Hey, you can open up your eyes Charlie. It's okay, all right?"**

**Charlie slowly looked up at him.**

**"Now listen. You're gonna stay right here on this bed, and you're not gonna look at glass, or anything else that has a reflection, okay? And as long as you do that, she cannot get you."**

**"But I can't keep that up forever. I'm gonna die, aren't I?" Charlie asked.**

**"No. No. Not anytime soon,"**

**Dean sat on the bed beside the teenager. "All right Charlie. We need to know what happened."**

"It's weird that Sam's the one comforting her and Dean is the one getting to the point. Usually, it's the other way around," Charlie noticed.

"He probably saw that Sam had more in common with her for whatever reason and so they switched roles," Bobby explained.

**"We were in the bathroom. Donna said it," she explained.**

**"That's not what we're talking about. Something happened, didn't it? In your life...a secret...where someone got hurt. Can you tell us about it?"**

**"I had this boyfriend. I loved him. But he kind of scared me too, you know? And one night, at his house, we got in this fight. Then I broke up with him, and he got upset, and he said he needed me and he loved me, and he said "Charlie, if you walk out that door right now, I'm gonna kill myself." And you know what I said? I said, "Go ahead." And I left. How could I say that? How could I leave him like that? I just...I didn't believe him, you know? I should have." She puts her face back on her knees and started crying again.**

"That poor girl," Jody commented.

"No one should have to go through that, especially a wee young one," Rowena agreed.

**Sam and Dean were later driving in the rain.**

**"You know her boyfriend killing himself, that's not really Charlie's fault," Dean stated.**

**"You know as well as I do spirits don't exactly see shades of gray, Dean. Charlie had a secret, someone died, that's good enough for Mary."**

**"I guess."**

**"You know, I've been thinking. It might not be enough to just smash that mirror."**

**"Why, what do you mean?"**

**"Well, Mary's hard to pin down, right? I mean she moves around from mirror to mirror so who's to say that she's not just gonna keep hiding in them forever? So maybe we should try to pin her down, you know, summon her to her mirror and then smash it."**

**"Well, how do you know that's going to work?"**

**"I don't, not for sure."**

**"Well, who's gonna summon her?" Dean asked.**

**"I will. She'll come after me. "**

**"You know what, that's it." Dean pulled the car over. "This is about Jessica, isn't it? You think that's your dirty little secret that you killed her somehow? Sam, this has got to stop, man. I mean, the nightmares and calling her name out in the middle of the night—it's gonna kill you. Now listen to me—It wasn't your fault. If you wanna blame something, then blame the thing that killed her. Or hell, why don't you take a swing at me? I mean I'm the one that dragged you away from her in the first place."**

**"I don't blame you."**

**"Well, you shouldn't blame yourself, because there's nothing you could've done."**

**"I could've warned her."**

**"About what? You didn't know what was gonna happen! And besides, all of this isn't a secret, I mean I know all about it. It's not gonna work with Mary anyway."**

**"No, you don't."**

**"I don't what?"**

**"You don't know all about it. I haven't told you everything."**

**"What are you talking about?"**

**"Well, it wouldn't really be a secret if I told you, would it?"**

**Dean looked surprised. "No. I don't like it. It's not gonna happen, forget it."**

**"Dean, that girl back there is going to die unless we do something about it. And you know what? Who knows how many more people are gonna die after that? Now we're doing this. You've got to let me do this."**

"Plus, it's not like you had a secret you could've said instead where someone died," Jody said. She was gonna leave it there until she noticed the way Dean's head subconsciously leaned toward Cas. _Wait a minute._ "You don't have a secret like that, right?"

With the tone of her voice, everyone turned to look at Dean with concerned looks, including Sam.

"Wait, what?" The younger brother asked, looking very worried and very concerned.

"You didn't know about this?" Bobby asked. It was a fair question, considering Sam's known everything Dean has told them about so far.

"No, I had no clue. Dean, what happened?"

Dean was almost curled around the angel, his face buried in his neck and his arms wrapped around his body.

They heard Cas whisper something to the hunter, but no one could tell what he said. It was probably Enochian. Whatever the angel said, Dean nodded and slowly unwrapped himself from around the other man, never letting go of his hand.

After a minute, Dean sighed. "After Sam left for college, it was just me and Dad. Maybe a week or two later, it was just me."

People began to _glare_ John's way, knowing that the eldest boy _abhorred_ being alone, and it always destroyed his mental health. Combine that with the fact that he thought the boy he raised hated him, it was a wonder how he was still alive. 

"As you, uh, as most of you know, after Dad left, I, uh, _hurt_ myself a lot. And I tried to end it a few times." Dean swallowed and looked down, suddenly losing his nerve. Cas gripped his hand tighter and Dean sighed. "About a week before I went to get Sam from Stanford, I was hunting a wolf. I distracted it and the victim it had held hostage escaped. Instead of fighting it and killing it, thinking that the vic was safe, I let it get me. It, uh, slashed me across the chest. It wasn't necessarily lethal, but if left untreated, it would've been. I didn't know that the vic had come back, and knowing that I would be alive to see it, killed them right in front of me." Dean was silent for another moment, ignoring the horrified silence following his story. "I, I managed to kill it, and I s-swore from that day that I would never l-let myself get killed on a solo hunt," Dean choked out the end before curling himself around his angel once more, letting the tears flow down his face as Cas ran his fingers through Dean's hair. Cas kissed the top of Dean's head and he nearly began sobbing.

Everyone was frozen in shock. Well, _almost_ everybody. They knew Dean's depression and suicidal tendencies had gotten bad, but they'd never in a million years imagine this.

The silence was overwhelming and Dean moved to stand up, presumably to run out of the room, when he was stopped by John's booming voice. 

"WHAT THE HELL, DEAN?! You let a victim get killed because you were _sad_?!" He was standing and Dean had fallen to the ground, his eyes wide and his whole body slightly trembling. His eyes were red and puffy and tear tracks painted their way down his face.

Before John could take another step toward his son, Cas stepped before him, pushing him back as his eyes began to glow. "You won't take another step toward him."

Sam, Crowley, Rowena, and Charlie were kneeled beside Dean on the floor trying to calm him down while Bobby and Jody stood beside Cas with their guns drawn.

Mary was standing beside John, not really knowing what was going on. She was still surprised over how protective the angel was over Dean. What surprised her even more was the light from the tv dimming as the angel before her started to glow, enormous blacks wings unfurling from behind him as his eyes started glowing an ethereal blue. Normally he looked like a dorky kind of guy, one you would pass by on the street, only casting a second look at his wild, sexed-up hair and piercing blue eyes, but ultimately forgot within minutes. 

Now, though, she was reminded that he was more than human, he was a being of light and celestial intent from another plane of existence.

"You will leave him alone," the angel boomed, his voice grating on her senses as a high-pitched whine sounded through the air. She covered her ears as the tv began to fritz out and the whine grew louder. 

"He is protected by both celestial and demonic powers along with witchcraft. One wrong move toward him and none of us will hesitate to put you down. Do you understand?"

The angel was terrifying. Looking around the three-man barricade, she found her eldest staring in awe and pride. There was another look on his face, one she couldn't pin down to one word; it was a look more profound than love.

"You won't do anything to me. You can't. God brought me back for a reason, and you wouldn't mess with that," John sneered.

In a split second the witch mumbled something and all three of them snapped a hand out as the light behind the angel and in his eyes grew more blinding. 

John was thrown against the wall behind them, clawing at his neck struggling to breathe as vines started climbing their way up his legs, tying them together.

"You know," the demon started, "you remind me of the kings from 18th century Europe. You see, they _also_ believed they had been chosen to rule, or in your case brought back to life, for a divine reason. They believed God gave them complete control over the kingdom, and in your case, your family." The demon began to stalk toward her husband, the other two staying behind until they were standing chest to chest. "And you know what happened to every, single, one of them?" The demon leaned in close to his ear. "They all died." After a moment, the demon turned around and began to walk away as John suddenly fell to the ground, the vines gone as he began coughing, gulping in the free oxygen.

The glow behind the angel died out as he turned around heading toward Dean while the demon and his witch mother went back to their seats. They had a quick, hushed discussion before they joined everyone else in their seats.

John glared at everyone in the room, but stood back up and plopped into his seat.

**"Well...that's just great." He pulled out the picture of Mary's dead body to look at the mirror. "All right let's start looking."**

**They split up and walked around the store and there was a flashing light that seemed to be part of an alarm.**

**"Maybe they've already sold it," Dean suggested.**

**Sam's flashlight stopped on the mirror. "I don't think so."**

**Dean walked over to him and pulled out the picture again to compare. It was the mirror.**

**"That's it," Dean sighed. "You sure about this?"**

**Sam handed Dean the flashlight and sighed. "Bloody Mary. Bloody Mary." He looked at Dean who gave him an unsure look back and Sam picked up the crowbar. "Bloody Mary," he finished.**

**Dean turned to see a light coming through the store. "I'll go check that out. Stay here, be careful."**

**Sam readies the crowbar again.**

**"Smash anything that moves." Dean crawled away towards the front door. He saw a headlight. "Crap." He put the crowbar down and began to walk to the door.**

**Meanwhile, Sam heard a breath, so he turned to look at a different mirror, but Mary was visible in the one he turned away from.**

**Dean was now outside with the police.**

**"Hold it," one of the two officers called out.**

**"Whoa guys, false alarm, I tripped the system," Dean falsely explained with his hands in the air.**

"That's not gonna work, boy," Bobby commented.

**"Who are you?"**

**"I'm the boss's kid," Dean said.**

**"You're Mister Yamashiro's kid?" The officer questioned.**

A few people throughout the room began to snigger while Bobby looked at Dean.

"Shut up," the man mumbled, fighting the blush creeping up his neck and face.

**Back in the shop, Mary was in a different mirror. Sam saw her there out of the corner of his eye and smashed the mirror with the crowbar. She was in a different one now, and he saw her and smashed that mirror, too. He was now back facing her mirror.**

**"Come on. Come into this one."**

**Sam looked oddly at his reflection, which had taken a mind of its own like Jill's. Sam started having trouble breathing and had a trickle of blood coming out of his eye. He dropped the crowbar and grabbed his heart.**

**"It's your fault. You killed her. You killed Jessica," the reflection whispered.**

**Back outside, Dean was trying to explain his situation. "Like I said, I was adopted."**

**"Yeah."**

**Dean was surrounded on both sides by the two cops. "You know, I just—I really don't have time for this right now." He punched one cop and backhanded the other, then punched the cop in front of him again. They were now on the ground.**

**"You never told her the truth—who you really were," Sam's reflection whispered back in the shop. Sam was falling toward the ground. "But it's more than that, isn't it? Those nightmares you've been having of Jessica dying, screaming, burning—You had them for days before she died. Didn't you!?! You were so desperate to ignore them, to believe they were just dreams. How could you ignore them like that? How could you leave her alone to die!?! You dreamt it would happen!!!"**

"Wait, you dreamt about her death before she died?" Mary asked.

"Umm, yeah, I did. For a few days. I thought I was just being paranoid since the anniversary of your death was coming up."

**Dean's crowbar went through the mirror. He bent down on the floor next to Sam. "Sam, Sammy!"**

**"It's Sam," the younger hunter mumbled.**

**"God, are you okay?" Dean asked, in reference to the blood flowing from his brother's eyes.**

"That doesn't look good," Jody said.

"I was fine, it didn't hurt."

"That doesn't make it any better."

**"Uh, yeah."**

**"Come on, come on." He pulls Sam up. He put his brother's arm over his neck, and they began to walk out until Mary crawled out of the frame of the mirror like Samara crawling out of the tv. They turned around to see her crawling over the broken glass. Mary walked towards them and they both fell to the ground. They both started bleeding from the eyes, but Dean reached over and grabbed a mirror so that Mary was forced to see her own reflection.**

**"You killed them! All those people! You killed them!" Mary's reflection yelled. Mary started choking to death and melted into a pile of blood.**

**Dean threw down the mirror he was holding and it shattered.**

**"Hey, Sam?" Dean called out.**

**"Yeah?"**

**"This has got to be like...what? 600 years of bad luck?"**

**Sam chuckled weakly.**

"That explains so much!" Dean yelled out, leaning forward and resting his face in his hands while Sam burst out laughing.

"How different would our lives have been if you hadn't done that?" Sam asked through his chuckles.

"Probably not much," Cas answered. "A lot of what happened was destined to happen, no matter if you gained 600 years of bad luck." Then the bastard had the audacity to smile. "Though that probably didn't help years down the road."

The angel lightly laughed as his hunter smacked him in the arm, his brother laughing beside him once more.

**Later the next day, Sam and Dean were driving in the car with Charlie in the back. They pulled up in front of a house.**

**"So this is really over?" Charlie asked.**

**Dean nodded. "Yeah, it's over."**

**"Thank you." Dean reached back to shake her hand, and she got out of the car.**

**"Charlie?" Sam called out and she turned around. "Your boyfriend's death...you really should try to forgive yourself. No matter what you did, you probably couldn't have stopped it. Sometimes bad things just happen."**

**Charlie smiled faintly, then turned around to go into the house.**

**Dean gently hit Sam. "That's good advice." They drove off. "Hey, Sam?"**

**"Yeah?"**

**"Now that this is all over, I want you to tell me what that secret is."**

**"Look...you're my brother and I'd die for you, but there are some things I need to keep to myself." Sam looked out the window and saw Jessica in a white dress on the street corner standing next to a light pole. As they turned the corner, she disappeared behind the pole. The brothers continued to drive out of town.**

"At least you decided to tell me at some point," Dean pointed out.

"Yeah, I'm glad I did," Sam agreed. "Hey, why don't you go take a nap or just relax. We'll get some snacks and drinks and we'll come back in a half-hour. I'm hungry," Sam suggested.

Dean smiled. He knew what his brother was doing, he wasn't subtle. Sam knew how drained got during the half-hour watching the show and wanted him to have a break.

"You're always hungry, Gigantor. But yeah, I'll do that." With a squeeze to Cas's hand a smile thrown his way, Dean got up and left the room.


	5. Interlude

Dean entered the room and closed the door behind him, immediately shucking off his flannel and flopping onto the bed. Exhaustion swept over him the second he hit the bed and he didn't want to ever get up again. After a moment, he sat up and moved to lean against the headboard, situating his pillow as to not hurt his neck. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath, calming himself down as he crossed his arms over his chest.

He didn't open his eyes when he heard the door open, nor when he felt the person crawl up onto the bed beside him and curl themselves around him. It was either Cas or Charlie, and he didn't really mind either way. 

"Ya know, it took a lot of courage to tell us what you did," Charlie started.

"I know." He opens his eyes to see Charlie laying on the bed, her arm thrown across his body and her head laid on his chest. He wrapped his arm around her as he leaned down a bit and placed a kiss on her head, causing her to look up at him.

"You know no one thinks differently about you, right?"

Dean tightened his grip on her and looked up at the ceiling. "Yeah, I know that, it just doesn't feel like it. Did you see how Da-"

"No one cares what that deadbeat asshole cares, and you shouldn't either. You're still my big brother and I love you."

Dean could feel tears pricking the corner of his eyes, but he refused to let them fall. He wrapped both arms around his sister and squeezed, resting his head against hers. He closed his eyes and breathed in her scent.

"Go to sleep, I'll still be here when you wake up."

Dean took a deep breath and promptly passed out.

~~~~~~~~In the kitchen~~~~~~~~

After Dean left, Sam and Cas stood up.

"If you want a snack or drink, then come to the kitchen," Sam announced.

Everyone except John and Mary stood up and filed out of the room.

In the kitchen, Sam and Cas were scouring through the pantry with the kids telling them what they want, Jody, Bobby, Rowena, and Crowley were sat at the table talking. 

After everyone got their snacks, they sat at the bar. Well, Charlie, Cas, and Sam sat at the bar while Kevin and Claire sat on the bar between each of them.

"Is Dean ok?" Claire asked.

Cas nodded his head. "He will be, he just needs a break. He worked really hard on the case we just came back from and he hasn't had a chance to relax. Plus, sharing that secret with you and John's not-so-kind reaction to it really drained him. He just needs a break."

Charlie devoured her snack. "I'm gonna go check on him."

Sam nodded and she left the room.

"I think we all need a break," Kevin muttered.

Cas took a sip of his water. "Agreed."

"Do you think we'll see anything more lighthearted?" Claire asked.

Sam licked his lips and nodded once more. "Yeah, we've had some good ones. But, it may not be for a while. The first few years were pretty dark until we met Cas."

Cas ducked his head and tried to hide a smile. Claire noticed and being the closest to him, patted him on the head. The angel looked up at his surrogate daughter, resting a hand on her knee.

"Once everyone finishes, we'll head back," Cas announced.

~~~~~~~~In the Dean Cave~~~~~~~~

"Those boys need to be taught a lesson," John said the minute they were alone. 

Mary turned to look at her husband. "What do you mean?"

"Did you see the way Dean was talking with that angel? And the way both our boys were treating those things like _people?_ Clearly, I need to reteach those boys some lessons. And don't even get me started on Dean getting lazy on hunts."

"I agree. Though, don't be too harsh on them. They might have been coerced."

John nodded. "Yeah. But both of them being gay? That's gotta be a lesson all on its own."

"Why?"

John snapped his head to look at her. "What do you mean why?"

"I mean, what's wrong with being gay?"

"Everything! It's not right. And _both_ of them? I expected this kind of behavior from Sam, always the rebellious one. But Dean? Clearly, he forgot all my lessons. They're almost as bad as-"

"Almost as bad as the monster we kill? Really? You're comparing our children to _monsters_?" 

Instead of saying anything more, John clenches his jaw. "I can see there's no winning this."

Before Mary could respond, everyone filed into the room, including Dean.

Everyone got situated in their seats and the next episode began. 

**Author's Note:**

> These chapters take forever to write, so I'll try and update them at least once a month.


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